Government Program to Protect Human Rights Defenders and Journalists Faces Serious Challenges. Washington Office on Latin America Organization Online ( May 14, 2015).
Mexico has become one of the most dangerous countries in the world to practice journalism with over 326 attacks targeted journalists in Mexico in 2014 according to the Washington Office on Latin America Organization. This past May, the body of Armando Saldana Morales, a journalist who worked for the radio station “La Ke Buena100.9 FM” was found shot. The perpetrators were not identified and the case was investigated. Morales is just a case of hundreds of cases of journalists who faced torture and killing with no justice. Indeed, it is a positive step that the government has created the Mechanism to Protect Human Rights and Journalists. However, this Mechanism faced issues that include insufficient funding and lack of cooperation between the state and local governments. Furthermore, the government has done little to investigate crimes against journalists. Yet, the U.S Agency for International Development will designate more than US $35 million in funding for human rights programs in Mexico.
Clay Boggs and Maureen Meyer, the authors, both work for the Washington Office on Latin America Organization. Washington Office on Latin America Organization is a non- profit that promotes human rights, social justice, and democracy in Latin American Countries based in Washington DC. This source is useful to research more cases related to this issue in Latin America. Boggs is a program officer for and Meyer is the director of WOLA’s Mexico program. Their area of expertise is Human Rights violation in Mexico. The article is very informative on violations against journalists in Mexico. In addition, it illustrated the Mexican government attempts to protect the journalists even though those attempts only represent a temporarily solution to the problem, especially when the attacks are never investigated. However, it would have been more meaningful to hear from the Mexican authorities and their reaction to the recent death of Morales.
demonstrations against the killing of journalists in Mexico.
