His Excellency Felipe de Jesús Calderón Hinojosa
President of Mexico
Mexico City, Mexico

                                                                                                          2 May 2012

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries, to express our grave concern at the murder of journalist Regina Martínez.

According to reports, the body of Ms Martínez, a correspondent for the weekly investigative news magazine Proceso, was found in her home in Xalapa in the eastern state of Veracruz on 28 April. Ms Martínez, who covered crime and drug trafficking and was widely respected for her professionalism and independent reporting, had reportedly been beaten and strangled to death. We are seriously concerned that Ms Martínez may have been murdered for carrying out her duties as a journalist.

In the past two years, the safety conditions for media professionals in Veracruz have severely deteriorated. Ms Martínez is the fifth journalist to have been killed in the state of Veracruz in the past 18 months and at least 13 journalists have fled the state in the past year in fear of violent retribution for their work.

Since the beginning of your administration on 1 December 2006, at least 40 journalists have been murdered and many more have disappeared, making your country one of the most dangerous places to be a media professional worldwide. In very few cases have the perpetrators been brought to justice and we are appalled at the climate of impunity that protects those who kill and threaten journalists.

We respectfully remind you that it is the duty of federal and state authorities to provide an environment in which journalists are able to work without fear of violence. The threat of violence that exists in Mexico has created a climate of fear that promotes self-censorship and exile, preventing Mexican citizens of being properly and duly informed and undermining your country’s democratic standards.

We call on you to ensure that a thorough and impartial investigation into the murder of Ms Martínez is carried out and that those responsible are quickly brought to justice. We ask you to do everything in your power to end the climate of impunity and to ensure the safety of journalists.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Jacob Mathew
President
World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers

Erik Bjerager
President
World Editors Forum

WAN-IFRA is the global organization for the world’s newspapers and news publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

CC:

Catalina Botero, Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission for Human Rights of the Organisation of American States;
Carlos de Icaza, Ambassador of Mexico to France;
Javier Duarte Ochoa, Governor of Veracruz;
Felipe Amadeo Flores, Justice Attorney of the State of Veracruz.