New York, March 6, 2024—Eight journalists have been killed while enrolled in Mexico’s Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists in the last seven years, a figure that highlights the urgent need to strengthen and reform the institution, said Amnesty International and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today upon publication of a joint investigation into the Mechanism.
The report, “’No one guarantees my safety’: The urgent need to strengthen Mexico’s federal policies for the protection of journalists,” analyzes the federal Mechanism created in 2012 to protect rights defenders and journalists in the country at extreme risk of threats and attacks due to their work. While Amnesty International has previously published research on the Mechanism’s deficiencies in protecting human rights defenders, this new report, conducted with press freedom group CPJ, specifically focuses on the Mechanism’s work to protect journalists.
“The federal Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists continues to be a crucial part of government efforts in Mexico to make the country a safer place for journalists but can only fulfil that role if it addresses its own failings adequately,” said Jan-Albert Hootsen, CPJ’s Mexico representative. “After years of incessant bloodshed and corrosive impunity, the time is now for the Mexican state to take action and show that it is finally willing to take its obligations towards freedom of the press seriously.”