Since 2000, 140 journalists have been killed, according to the CNDH

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Since 2000, 140 journalists have been murdered, crimes that seek to silence freedom of expression and represent a means of intimidating union members, said Luis Raúl González Pérez, president of the National Commission of Human Rights (CNDH), which called on the current authorities and the next government to avoid statements that stigmatize communicators.

By participating in the inauguration of the seminar on journalistic work from the perspective of human rights, access to information and the protection of personal data, the Ombudsman stated that criticism was part of democratic life and that, in this sense, journalistic work was fundamental.

He expressed his strongest protest and demanded an effective state response to the grievances against journalists, since there were 140 killings of 2000 to date.

"Despite the importance that journalists must report, they have consequences, they are harassed, they are intimidated, they are persecuted, there are phone calls at different times, they affect their patrimonial goods, their vehicles, extraterrestrial material damage. but there is also the disappearance of communicators and, worse, death, "he lamented, adding that these acts are intimidation directed also against other communicators, because the goal is to silence the freedom of expression.

He urged the authorities of the three levels of government and those who will be part of the next government not to make statements stigmatizing journalists or the media, nor to pressure them to claim compensation for the alleged moral injury caused by a claim for compensation important.

The president of the CNDH indicated that the protection mechanisms were of help, but they do not solve the problem. Respect for the law and the fight against impunity in attacks against journalists will therefore be attacked only by the bases that generate these conditions. violate their rights.

He explained that the attacks against journalists persisted because the vast majority remained unpunished and that those who practice this profession in Mexico are often forced to self-censure as a result of attacks, persecutions and threats of violence. death of civil servants and organized crime.

María Patricia Kurczyn Villalobos, Commissioner of the National Institute of Transparency, Access to Information and Protection of Personal Data, stressed the importance of the efforts of L & D Institution at the seminar and recalled that the right to know the rights can not be separated. information and freedom of expression without violating the guarantees of society.

Raúl Contreras, director of the law faculty of the National Autonomous University of Mexico, lamented the fact that journalism is classified as high risk in Mexico and added that although no government likes critics those who repress are deceiving themselves good things to realize when something is wrong.