Mexico City – Mexico created a special prosecutor for crimes against journalists Wednesday but said the new office will not tackle cases involving drug traffickers or organized crime – both central sources of attacks against the media.
Officials from the federal attorney general’s office said the prosecutor will be in charge of investigating and punishing crimes committed against Mexican journalists and foreigners reporting from Mexico. The head of the new office probably won’t be named until next week, said Mario Alvarez, deputy attorney general for human rights.
The office begins work today. The special prosecutor will not have jurisdiction over crimes committed against journalists that involve suspected drug smugglers, terrorists, money launderers, arms dealers or those who help undocumented migrants slip into U.S. territory.
As in the past, those cases will go to the busy office controlled by the deputy attorney general for organized crime. The majority of threats, attacks and killings of journalists in Mexico are committed by those linked to drugs or other forms of organized crime. Last year, seven Mexican reporters were killed and one disappeared.
At a meeting sponsored by the Inter-American Press Association last month, Mexican border journalists said they have begun censoring themselves out of fear of being killed.
And various media watchdog groups reported last year that largely because of the violent drug cartels operating in the area, northern Mexico has become one of the most dangerous places in the hemisphere to be a journalist.
In an attack last week, an unidentified group of men burst into the offices of El Manana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo, across the U.S. border from Laredo, and opened fire with high- powered weapons before lobbing grenades. One reporter was severely injured.
