The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) today condemned the murder of Mexican broadcaster Jesús “Chuchín” Ramos Rodríguez and urged the Mexican government to fulfill its promise to strengthen protection measures for journalists.
The radio journalist, who directed the news program “Our region today,” was assassinated this Saturday with eight bullets in the municipality of Emiliano Zapata, in the southeastern Mexican state of Tabasco.
The president of the SIP, the Colombian María Elvira Domínguez, urged the Mexican State to comply “with the promise of ensuring the safety of communicators.”
The IAPA, based in Miami, urged the Mexican government to give priority to freedom of expression and the protection of journalists, remembering that Ramos Rodríguez is the second journalist killed in that country this year.
“We will continue insisting to the State so that the murders and disappearances of journalists do not go unpunished, true justice is guaranteed,” said Mexican Roberto Rock, president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
Dominguez and Rock urged the government to assign greater technical, economic and human resources for the protection mechanism and for the strengthening of the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Attention to Crimes Committed against Freedom of Expression (Feadle).
After the murder of “Chuchín”, the federal government announced the strengthening of protection measures for journalists and human rights defenders.
For its part, the National Human Rights Commission requested precautionary measures to safeguard the life and safety of the journalist’s family.
The first Mexican journalist killed this year was Rafael Murúa Manríquez, director of Radio Kashana in the municipality of Mulegé, on January 19.
During the past six years of President Enrique Peña Nieto (2012-2018), 47 murders of journalists were committed in Mexico, while in López Obrador’s term, which began on December 1, three journalists have been murdered (EFEUSA). –
