Freedom of Expression
Press Release R 129/14
PRESS RELEASE
R 129/14
OFFICE OF THE
SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR CONDEMNS MURDERS OF TWO COMMUNICATORS IN MEXICO
Washington, D.C.,
November 3, 2014. – The Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of
Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) condemns
the murder of journalist Jesús Antonio Gamboa Urías who was disappeared since
October 10 and whose body was found on October 22 in Ahome, state of Sinaloa,
Mexico. The Office of the Special Rapporteur expresses its concern and urges
the Mexican authorities to take urgent action to establish the motive of the
crime and to activate all the legal instruments available to identify and
punish its perpetrators and masterminds.
According to the
information received, the journalist’s body was found after the authorities
arrested the suspected murderers, who had used Gamboa’s credit card. The
suspects informed the authorities of the location of the body. Gamboa Urías was
the director of the political magazine Nueva
Prensa from which he addressed issues related to corruption and local
politics. He was last seen around midnight on October 10 in the business venue
one of his siblings.
The Office of the
Special Rapporteur takes note of the actions taken by the authorities through
which they were able to capture people allegedly linked to the murder. However,
the Office urges the authorities to thoroughly investigate the hypothesis that
this crime could have been associated with the exercise of the victim’s right
to freedom of expression.
Additionally, the
Office of the Special Rapporteur expresses its condemnation over the murder of
the Twitter user @Miut3 allegedly by organized crime. The communicator used to
report on her Twitter account information related to public safety issues in
the municipality of Reynosa, state of Tamaulipas, and collaborated with the
website Valor por Tamaulipas.
According to the information available, on October 16 a photo of a murdered woman
was posted on her Twitter account next to messages that invite her followers to
close their accounts and not risk their lives. The Twitter account was
suspended.
Those messages also
pointed out that María del Rosario Fuentes Rubio was the presumed identity of
the Twitter user. Rubio Fuentes, a physician, had been reported missing by a
family member who said that on October 15 unidentified armed persons
intercepted her outside a company in the municipality of Reynosa. The Office of
the Special Rapporteur expresses its concern and urges the Mexican authorities
to take urgent action to establish the motive of the crime and to activate all
the legal instruments available to identify and punish its perpetrators and
masterminds.
The State reported
that the Public Prosecutor of the State of Tamaulipas opened an investigation
on the disappearance of Fuentes Rubio.
Violence against
journalists and online media users in Mexico has been of particular concern to
this Office. With these crimes, the number of communicators murdered in Mexico
in 2014 has risen to eight. In 2013, this Office reported three murders of
journalists.
Similarly, the
Office of the Special Rapporteur considers it essential to urgently assess
whether the mechanisms of change in jurisdiction should be activated so that
these cases could be investigated and prosecuted immediately by federal
authorities. This Office also considers it fundamental to consolidate the
Mechanism to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists [Mecanismo de Protección para Personas
Defensoras de Derechos Humanos y Periodistas], and to strengthen the
interagency coordination mechanisms between federal authorities and the various
levels of government to ensure the proper adoption and implementation of
protection measures.
Principle 9 of the IACHR
Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression states: "[t]he murder,
kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as
the material destruction of communications media violate the fundamental rights
of individuals and strongly restrict freedom of expression. It is the duty of
the state to prevent and investigate such occurrences, to punish their
perpetrators and to ensure that victims receive due compensation."
The Office of the
Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression was created by the Inter-American
Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) to encourage the defense of the right to
freedom of thought and expression in the hemisphere, given the fundamental role
this right plays in consolidating and developing the democratic system.