Representatives of civil organizations presented to the Senate a package of legal changes for the protection of journalists and human rights defenders.
Speaker at the panel “Freedom of the press. How is it regulated in Mexico?”, organized by the Human Rights Commission of the Upper House, Sara Mendiola Landeros, executive director of Civic Proposal, stated that it is not only necessary to strengthen the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, but above all the public policy of protection, which until now is unfinished and has to be improved.
The project of legal amendments presented includes the approval of a general law on the matter that establishes mandatory coordination between the three levels of government and entities of the Mexican State, and is regulated by the Federation.
The mechanism, he said, has to be of a national nature, as long as the regulation is exclusive to the Federation and that the states and municipalities are obliged to comply with the actions that are defined.
“It is too risky to place the responsibility of protection on the states. It is documented by the authorities themselves that the main aggressors of journalists in the country are the authorities and the greatest number of attacks is in the localities”.
Enrique Irazoque Palazuelos, national executive coordinator of the aforementioned protection mechanism, agreed on this, who considered that if the obligation is not established towards the ordinary authorities, which are the ones that should be attending to the problem, “this will be the story of never ending” .
“As long as the mechanism continues to absorb the obligations of state authorities and prosecutors and other government areas, this will be unsustainable,” he said.
The protection of journalists and human rights defenders is an obligation of the State and it is urgent to make a “common front”, he considered.