To mark the inaugural International Day to End Impunity on 23 November, join Index in demanding justice for journalists’ murdered in the line of duty
Freedom of Expression Organisations Call for Justice on International Day to End Impunity
London, November 23, 2011
Today Index on Censorship, Article 19, the Committee to Protect Journalists and English PEN join dozens of freedom of expression organisations around the world to mark the inaugural International Day to End Impunity.
In the past 10 years, more than 500 journalists have been killed. In nine out of 10 cases, the murderers have gone free. Many others targeted for exercising their right to freedom of expression — artists, writers, musicians, activists — join their ranks.
On this day two years ago the single deadliest event for the media took place when 30 journalists and two support workers were brutally killed in Ampatuan, Maguindanao province, The Philippines. The journalists were part of a convoy accompanying supporters of a local politician filing candidacy papers for provincial governor. In total the “Maguindanao Massacre” as it has come to be known, claimed 58 victims. Not one of more than a hundred individuals suspected of involvement in the atrocity has been convicted yet.
We join those in the Philippines not only in honouring their slain colleagues, friends and family members, but demanding justice for them and hundreds more in Russia, Belarus, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Mexico, Colombia, Iraq and Somalia and other countries where killings of journalists and free expression activists have repeatedly gone unpunished. Above all we demand an end to the cycle violence and impunity.
This year alone at least 17 journalists were murdered for their work. These include Pakistani journalist Saleem Shahzad, whose body was found May 31 showing signs of torture. They include Mexican journalist and social media activist Maria Elizabeth Macías Castro Macías, whose killers left a computer keyboard and a note with the journalist’s body saying she had been killed for writing on social media websites. These heinous acts not only silence the messenger, but are intended to intimidate all others from bringing news and sharing critical voices with the public.
We call on governments around the world to investigate and prosecute these crimes and bring an end to impunity.
Article 19 English PEN
Committee to Protect Journalists Index on Censorship
23 November marks the anniversary of the 2009 Ampatuan massacre, in which 34 journalists were murdered in an election-related killing in the Philippines, making it the single deadliest incident for journalists in recent history.
At least one Mexican Twitter user was detained by local police after a series of sarcastic tweets made after a helicopter crash that killed Mexico’s interior minister Francisco Blake Mora, as well as seven other Mexican officials. A citizen identified as Mareo Flores or @MareoFlores was detained by local police based on tweets he made on 11 and 12 November. One of his tweets sent after the crash, said in English “Secretario de Gobernación singing in the dead of night, take these broken wings and learn to fly…”. According to his father, Mareo was arrested by men who arrived in five unmarked blackcars on 13 November, and released a few hours later after prosecutors interviewed him. Federico Areola of SDP Noticias criticised officials for the arrest, because the official investigation indicates that the crash was an accident, rather than an assassination. Another Twitter user, @Morfe0, also gained fame on 11 November, after it was revealed he had predicted the helicopter crash in a message he sent out on 10 November, joking that Mexicans should avoid Paseo de la Reforma, a famous avenue in Mexico City because ministers would fall from the sky on the account of the ominous 11/11/11 date. He was also referencing the 2008 death of another interior minister, Juan Camilo Mouriño, who died after the Lear jet in which he was traveling crash near Reforma Avenue.
MURDERED 13 NOVEMBER 2008 José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, Reporter, “El Diario de Ciudad Juárez” — Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Join us in demanding justice for crime reporter José Armando Rodríguez Carreón, 40, who was shot at least eight times in a company-owned car parked inside his garage on 13 November 2008. His 8-year-old daughter, who was in the backseat, was uninjured. Rodríguez had recently written an article accusing the local prosecutor’s nephew of having links to drug traffickers. Earlier that year, as a result of threats to “tone it down,” Rodríguez was temporarily transferred to El Paso, Texas, for his safety. But on his return he insisted on resuming work without any special protection. He said, “The risks here are high and rising, and journalists are easy targets. But I can’t live in my house like a prisoner. I refuse to live in fear.”
In July 2009, the lead investigator on Rodriguez’s murder was shot to death. Less than a month later, his replacement was also murdered. Not one of the three cases has been solved. Drug-related violence has reportedly killed more than 35,000 in Mexico since the government launched an armed offensive against drug cartels five years ago. And as reported often by IFEX members, more journalists have been killed in Mexico than anywhere else in Latin America
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
MURDERED 10 November 2006 Editor and Owner, “El Despertar de la Costa” — Ixtapa, Mexico
Join us in demanding justice for Misael Tamayo Hernández. A security guard came across his naked body in a motel room in Zihuatanejo, a Pacific coastal resort town in the southern state of Guerrero on 10 November 2006. His body was found with his hands tied behind his back. Three small puncture marks on his arm suggested he may have been given a lethal injection. A preliminary autopsy concluded that he died from a massive heart attack.
The motive behind the murder is still unknown, but there are indications it may have been related to his family-run newspaper’s investigative reporting on organised crime, drug trafficking and local corruption. Colleagues and family members at the paper said Tamayo had received death threats a couple of months before his murder, but that he had not taken them seriously.
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
To mark the inaugural International Day to End Impunity on 23 November, join Index in demanding justice for journalists’ murdered in the line of duty
