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 News Around the Republic of Mexico | March 2006 
Mexican Journalists Warn of Wave of Libel Suits Against Them
 Associated Press
| | A handful of men firing assault rifles burst into the newsroom of El Manana newspaper last month in the city of Nuevo Laredo. |
Mexico City – Mexican journalists have signed a declaration to protest what they call a “wave of lawsuits for libel” that they say are being used to intimidate and silence reporters, a Mexican watchdog group said Tuesday.
The Center of Journalism and Public Ethics released a statement saying 3001 journalists from 27 states have signed a “Declaration against the Violence against Journalists and for the Freedom of Expression of Mexico.”
In the past few months, several prominent journalists have been detained on charges of libel.
Last week, a judge in the northern state of Chihuahua found reporter Isabel Arvide defamed a former Chihuahua state attorney general, Jesus Solis, and gave her a suspended one-year sentence.
The article, published in the Mexican newspaper Milenio in 2001, alleged Solis was part of a drug cartel being formed in Chihuahua, across the border from Texas.
Arvide, 54, was also ordered to pay US$19,000 (euro15,800) in punitive damages.
Arvide compared her case to that of Lydia Cacho, a Cancun-based reporter accused of falsely reporting that a prominent businessman in Mexico is linked to the accused leader of a child prostitution and pornography ring.
Cacho was arrested in her Cancun home and driven 1,000 miles (1,700 kilometers) to jail in central Puebla state, where the businessman had filed libel charges. She was released on bail.
In Chiapas, Angel Mario Ksheratto, a journalist with the newspaper Cuarto Poder, was detained last month on charges of defaming a former state official.
“We demand that the law not be used by the political power as a reprisal and that competent authorities approve legal changes so that crimes of (defamation) be considered civil cases and not criminal,” the news release stated. |
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