Without freedom of the press there is no democracy: Mexico must protect journalists before ending impunity.
Soraya Rodríguez, MEP for Ciudadanos and spokesperson for Human Rights in the European Parliament, has demanded that the Mexican government protect journalists in the face of the murders and attacks they suffer year after year with impunity.
“Mexico has begun one of the bloodiest years against press freedom with six journalists murdered, 47 since 2018, a shocking situation. And this violence also has a woman’s face, from 2010 to 2021 there have been more than 1,200 attacks against women, mainly reporters, 769 in the last three years”, denounced the MEP in a debate in the European Parliament’s plenary on the situation of journalists in the country.
Soraya Rodríguez explained that the country’s protection mechanism for human rights defenders and journalists is no longer working, as demonstrated by the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado, who was assassinated last January in Tijuana despite being registered in this programme. Ninety-five per cent of the murders of journalists remain unsolved.
She called on the government to prosecute the killers and to close down the platform it has created to fight disinformation but that is a platform to stigmatise journalists. “This platform must be eliminated and the real enemy must be fought: those who murder journalists with impunity. Without freedom of the press there can be no democracy,” he concluded.
