MEXICAN JOURNALISTS DECRY WEAK EFFORTS AGAINST VIOLENCE ON PEERS

MEXICO CITY, MEXICO -- Mexican journalists have grown impatient as
more of their colleagues are murdered, kidnapped or threatened
because of their work. Increasingly, the media have directed their
frustration toward the office designed to provide them justice: the
Special Prosecutor for Crimes Against Journalists.

Created amid fanfare in 2006 by then-President Vicente Fox, the
office is now seen by many media organizations as a toothless entity
without the resources or political will to successfully prosecute
crimes committed against journalists.

The sense of urgency increased this month after the fatal shooting in
Acapulco of Amado Ramirez, a reporter for Televisa, Mexico's largest
television network. Ramirez was shot weeks after airing an
investigation on drug traffickers, and his slaying prompted hundreds
of journalists to rally for greater protections.

On Wednesday, the Vienna-based International Press Institute reported
that Mexico's seven murders in 2006 made it the second-deadliest
nation for journalists, behind Iraq. Media watchdogs said the
violence is tied to warring drug cartels, often in league with
corrupt police, who hope to intimidate journalists from reporting
their activities.

In his first interview with the foreign press, Special Prosecutor
Octavio Orellana defended his office's accomplishments but
acknowledged he could use more personnel. Orellana said he often has
to borrow investigators from the attorney general's office because
his budget is modest.

"I am satisfied that the work is being done, but I am not satisfied
because we would always want more results," said Orellana, a lawyer
and criminologist who assumed the post in March. "Like everything in
life, if you have more human elements, a larger budget, you think you
can do more."

A Problem for Decades

Journalists have been under siege for decades, especially near a U.S.
border region that remains a trouble spot. Just last week, the body
of journalist Saul Noe Martinez of the newspaper Interdiario was
found wrapped in a blanket after he had been kidnapped from a town
along the Arizona border.

Journalists hailed the creation of the special prosecutor's office as
recognition that the violence had become a national crisis. But
political analyst Jorge Zepeda said the move created a false sense
that the Mexican government took the problem seriously.

"The prosecutor was created by Fox as a demagogic, rhetorical attempt
to lower the pressure in the public over the violence against
journalists," said Zepeda, a former editor at newspapers in Mexico
City and Guadalajara.

Jose Antonio Calcaneo, a newspaper editor in the city of
Villahermosa, complained that President Felipe Calderon has not been
any more willing than Fox to take on the issue. Calcaneo has seen the
threats up close. An investigative reporter at competitor Tabasco
Today, Rodolfo Rincon, was kidnapped in January, reportedly after
receiving threats.

"Calderon declared himself against this wave of violence, but in his
deeds, this has translated into nothing. Absolutely nothing," said
Calcaneo, president of FAPERMEX, a national federation of media
organizations. "They have practically made the special prosecutor disappear."

Calcaneo also said Orellana, the special prosecutor, has "shirked his
responsibility" by not staking out his jurisdiction over crimes
against journalists.

Orellana said he prefers to hand over cases in which journalists
appear to have been victims of organized crime to SIEDO, an arm of
the attorney general's office that investigates those groups. In
defending his performance, he also noted that many cases remain at
the state level and never make it to his office.

Without giving details, Orellana said his office could close some cases soon.

Orellana said he would support making crimes against journalists
automatic federal cases. He said many reporters are threatened
because they are investigating state authorities, and that the public
generally has more confidence in the integrity of federal prosecutors.

Shared Blame

Carlos Lauria, Americas program director at the New York-based
Committee to Protect Journalists, said the special prosecutor has not
achieved any "breakthrough results," but he blamed a generally
"dysfunctional" justice system. Lauria noted progress in some
investigations and said a federal prosecutor still was an improvement
over state authorities, who often are corrupt or inefficient.

Some colleagues of Ramirez, the slain Acapulco reporter, have
complained that state investigators in Guerrero have botched the
probe. Two men were arrested days after the killing but were released on bail.

Orellana said his office will push efforts to prevent, not merely
prosecute, crimes against journalists. Staffers are training
reporters how to preserve threatening e-mails and text messages that
could be used later in criminal prosecutions, for example. About half
of the office's 68 investigations in 2006 involved threats.

In another move welcomed by journalists, Mexican lawmakers and
Calderon pushed through a law this month that effectively removed
criminal penalties for slander and libel. Media organizations had
complained that government authorities used charges to squelch
investigative reporting.

Still, analyst Zepeda worries that journalists will continue
censoring themselves if they think authorities cannot guarantee
justice. The media's importance to Mexico's developing democracy
makes the special prosecutor's work even more important, Zepeda said.

"It doesn't mean that a journalist is more important than a
breadmaker or taxi driver," Zepeda said. "But behind every murdered
journalist are hundreds of journalists who will stop talking about
organized crime. The damage caused to Mexican society is immense."