Ruling was committee’s first against Mexico, which has become one of the most dangerous countries for media workers

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

The UN human rights committee has rebuked Mexico for failing to protect its journalists in a ruling on the case of a prominent reporter who was kidnapped and threatened with rape by police acting at the behest of a powerful politician and one of his business backers.

The ruling was the committee’s first against Mexico, which has become one of the most murderous countries in the world for media workers.

The resolution found journalist Lydia Cacho was arbitrarily detained, subjected to torture and gender violence and had her right to free expression violated.

The resolution also ordered reparations be made and called for the abolition of laws in eight states criminalizing calumny and defamation – which have been used to persecute journalists and whistleblowers – be scrapped.

“This is a very clear message for the Mexican state … violence against the press, against women, against female journalists is unacceptable,” said Leopoldo Maldonado, deputy director of the press freedom group Article 19 Mexico.

“We have a state, which acts like a mafia, which acts to protect its own, to persecute those telling the truth, to persecute those who search for justice and to defend human rights through journalism,” he said.



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Cacho’s 2005 book The Demons of Eden exposed a pedophile ring in Cancún, which she alleged was run by businessman Jean Succar Kuri. (Succar has subsequently been convicted.) She also mentioned a businessman from Puebla state, Kamel Nacif – the “denim king” – was a friend and paying for Succar’s defence.



Cacho was detained in Cancún on defamation charges by police from Puebla in December 2005. She was driven 20 hours to Puebla, during which time police taunted her, threatened her with rape and forced a gun into her mouth. At other points on the trip, the police debated drowning her in the Campeche sound.

The case became a national scandal after a taped telephone conversation was leaked in which Nacif – who never denied knowing Succar or disproved Cacho’s reporting – is heard scheming with then Puebla governor Mario Marín to persecute Cacho for her exposé.

“We’re survivors of a national tragedy,” said Cacho. “I was tortured, persecuted by the police, for governors and people protected by the president, for protecting the fundamental right of children.”

The UN resolution comes as Mexico confronts the murders of more than 100 media workers since 2000. Six journalists have been murdered in Mexico in 2018, according to press freedom groups.

Rubén Pat, publisher of Semanario Playa News, was shot five times last month in the tourist hotspot of Playa del Carmen, where he critically covered the police and an increasing wave of drug cartel violence. His murder followed the 29 June slaying of one of his reporters, José Guadalupe Chan Dzib. Semanario Playa News subsequently said it was suspending operations.

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Crimes against journalists are often attributed to drug cartels. But press freedom advocates say local authorities frequently threaten and harass journalists, while the crushing indifference of investigators and lack of prosecutions only encourages more attacks.

“The perpetrators feel encouraged that if threats don’t work, they can go to higher levels of violence,” said Jan Jařab, the UN high commissioner for human rights representative in Mexico. “Impunity is the common denominator in many of the human rights problems in Mexico.”