Journalist Guillermo Osorno hand-delivered the letter to President Peña Nieto’s workplace at Los Pinos presidential palace on Monday morning after which hosted a press convention.
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Nearly 500 prominent voices, including Britain’s Salman Rushdie, American writer Paul Auster and Canada’s Margaret Atwood, signed an open letter Sunday to President Peña Nieto decrying violence against journalists.
The letter was posted on the website for the U.S. chapter of PEN worldwide, an organization that promotes literature and freedom of expression.
The letter refers to the murders of photojournalist Ruben Espinosa and four women, including human rights activist Nadia Vera, on July 31 in Mexico City.
We “would like to express our indignation regarding the deadly attacks against reporters in your country”, the letter states. Veracruz’s governor has also been interviewed.
The letter stated that Espinosa’s slaying was, “only the latest in a long series of outrages against the press, and it took place in a city that was considered one of the last safe places in the country for reporters to work. There would now seem to be no safe haven for the profession”, the letter states. But, in fact, the investigation led by Mexico City’s Attorney General’s Office has been harshly criticized by local journalists and advocates precisely for not seriously considering the repeated threats against Espinosa as a possible motive.
Since 2000, 88 journalists have been killed, according to Reporters Without Borders.
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Santos’s death brings to 15 the number of journalists killed in Veracruz since 2010, making the Gulf state one of the most risky regions in the world for reporters. “The great majority of these crimes have never been prosecuted”, the letter said. The office did not identify who he worked for, but local media said he had been employed by the Veracruz affiliate of a television network. Mexico’s National Commission for Human Rights has evidence that in numerous crimes against journalists public officials are involved, but so far, those officials enjoy impunity.
