22 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
Two people jailed for making “alarmist” posts on Twitter were freed yesterday after four weeks in prison in Mexico. Maria de Jesus Bravo, a local journalist, and maths teacher Gilberto Martinez Vera, had the charges of terrorism and sabotage against them dropped, and they walked free from jail to cheering supporters. The pair sent out Twitter messages regarding an unconfirmed drug attack on a primary school last month, and were accused of terrifying frantic parents. The charges, which can carry prison sentences of up to 30 years imprisonment, were dropped following outrage from human rights activists and free speech advocates.
05 Sep 11 | Americas, Mexico
Free expression and press freedom in Mexico have again taken several hits in recent days. Last week, two Twitter users were sent to jail in Veracruz, the southern state which has seen a rise in drug-related violence thanks to the Zetas Cartel and its confrontations with anti-drug units of the Mexican Navy.
Gilberto Martínez Vera and María de Jesús Bravo Pagola were sentenced to jail for having tweeted warnings about impending drug gang violence around several public schools. Tweeps using the hashtag #verfollow continue to complain about the jail terms and attacks against freedom of expression.
On the same day, the congress of the southeastern state of Tabasco approved a law punishing those who disseminate false alarms via phone calls or social networks. The crime carries a possible sentence of up to six years in prison.
The nerves of Mexican journalists have also been frazzled by the murder last week of two female journalists, Ana María Marcela Yarce Viveros and Rocío González Trápaga, who were found strangled in a park in Mexico City. Until now, violence against the press in Mexico has spared the capital, Yarce Viveros worked for Contralinea, an online investigative journalism site, and Gonzalez Trapaga, who worked for Televisa a one point, was at the time an owner of a currency exchange centre at Mexico City’s international airport. Investigators have suggested the motive for their murders was not journalism related.
02 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
The bodies of Marcela Yarce, the founder of a political magazine, and Rocio González, a freelance journalist, have been discovered by joggers in El Mirador park in Iztapalapa, Mexico City. The women’s necks showed strangulation marks and their hands were tied behind their backs, said a spokesman for Mexico City police. Authorities gave no motive for the killings. Yarce founded Contralinea magazine, and González was a freelancer and former reporter for the Televisa television network.
27 Jul 11 | Index Index, minipost, News and features
The decapitated body of Yolanda Ordaz, a reporter for regional paper Notiver, has been found in the Mexican city of Veracruz two days after she went missing. Ordaz had reportedly been investigating the 20th June murder of her colleague, columnist Miguel Angel López Velasco, his wife, and son, a photographer with the newspaper. Ordaz was also said to have received death threats in connection to her work. Local authorities, meanwhile have said there are indications her death is related to organised crime, rather than her work as a journalist.
According to reports, a note found with the body seems to connect Ordaz’s murder to the López killing. The note read: “Friends also betray. Sincerely, Carranza.” This may tie the murder to the chief suspect in the López case, identified as former traffic police officer Juan Carlos Carranza.
