The Inter-American Press Association (SIP) execrated yesterday the murder in Mexico of journalist Luis Martín Sánchez Íñiguez, the sixth so far this year in that country, and asked the authorities “protection and immediate attention to the risk situation that communicators suffer” during the performance of their work.
The president of the IAPA, Michael Greenspon, global director of Licensing and Printing Innovation for The New York Times, expressed, on behalf of the organization, “solidarity” with the family and colleagues of Sánchez Íñiguez and urged the authorities to ” not lower our guard and investigate the murder and kidnappings in an expeditious and thorough manner”.
Sánchez Íñiguez, a correspondent for the newspaper La Jornada in the Mexican state of Nayarit, had been missing since July 5.
The body of the 59-year-old journalist was found on July 8 in the city of Tepic.
The State Prosecutor’s Office reported that his murder and the disappearances last week of journalists Jonathan Lora Ramírez and Osiris Maldonado de la Paz would be related to his work.
The three had collaborated on journalistic and personal projects. Lora Ramírez and Maldonado de la Paz were found alive days later.
CONFRONT IMPUNITY
The president of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, journalistic director of La Voz del Interior, of Argentina, pointed out that “investigating to find out the motive, pointing out and judging those responsible for the crime and kidnappings is the route to confront impunity for violence against journalists in the country”.
Sánchez Íñiguez was taken violently from his home in the El Armadillo community, from where his computer and a hard drive were also taken.
The IAPA Chapultepec Index report on press freedom ranks Mexico 17th out of 22 countries.
Among the most significant problems of press freedom, the Index highlights that “the violence exerted against the journalistic union can be considered at this moment as unstoppable. The omission of the authorities continues to be a continuous action; they do not carry out investigations to seek justice or to prevent attacks on journalists and human rights defenders”.
In addition to Sánchez Íñiguez, this year Marco Aurelio Ramírez, a journalist and collaborator of Periódico Central and Central Puebla, in Puebla, was also murdered on May 23.
20 KILLED IN MEXICO
A total of twenty journalists were killed in Mexico in 2022.
The SIP is a non-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas.
It is made up of more than 1,300 publications from the Western Hemisphere, and is based in Miami, Florida, USA.