The Mexican government on Monday announced protective measures for a journalist and a television station threatened in a video by an armed group claiming to be one of the most powerful drug cartels.
"The government will take appropriate measures to protect journalists and media who are under threat,"
Jesús Ramírez, spokesperson for President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador, said on Twitter.
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“Democratic freedoms must be guaranteed as well as the right to information,”
he added. In a recording released on social media, a man who introduces himself as Rubén Oseguera, leader of the Jalisco Cartel - New Generation (CJNG), one of the most powerful drug trafficking organizations in Mexico, makes threats against him. against the Milenio television channel and the presenter Azucena Uresti. Surrounded by several hooded men armed with powerful weapons, the man demands that coverage of the conflict with other groups in the western state of Michoacán be
"fair"
.
The journalist did not speak, but press freedom organizations condemned the incident and asked for the protection of the authorities.
"This repeated practice of publicly threatening the media and journalists without any shame, without any fear, is serious, because it means that these groups are strengthening themselves in the face of the passivity of the state"
, warned Balbina Flores, representative. in Mexico by Reporters Without Borders (RSF). She urged the government to ensure the safety of reporters who have been targeted by criminal groups, but added that correspondents in conflict zones are the most vulnerable.
For his part, journalist Héctor de Mauleón, who investigates drug trafficking, said on Twitter that this threat
“is very worrying”
and that it
“cannot be ignored”.
Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries for the press, with more than 100 journalists killed since 2000, according to figures from the Commission on Human Rights. This year, three journalists were murdered. The last, Ricardo López, who had reported threats in the state of Sonora (north of the country), was killed on July 22. In 2020, eight journalists were murdered, according to RSF. More than 90 pc of murders of reporters in the country go unpunished, denounce organizations defending freedom of expression.