Philip True

CPJ Update September 2006 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

CPJ Update Committee to Protect Journalists August 16, 2006

CPJ Calls for Release of Kidnapped Fox News Journalists After gunmen ambushed a Fox News Channel crew in the center of Gaza City on August 14, and abducted correspondent Steve Centanni, a U.S. citizen, and freelance cameraman Olaf Wiig of New Zealand, CPJ called for their immediate and unconditional release in a statement carried widely in domestic and international media. Fox News reports today that negotiations for the safe release of the two journalists are underway and CPJ continues to monitor developments closely. Seven other journalists have been kidnapped in Gaza over the last year. All were released unharmed.

CPJ Update June 16, 2006 News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Mexico

While journalists in the capital, Mexico City, report freely on government, crime, and corruption, reporters in the U.S.-Mexico border region risk grave danger in covering sensitive topics, such as drug trafficking. Two border journalists were killed for their work in 2004.

Francisco Ortiz Franco, 48, an editor and reporter with the tabloid weekly Zeta, was gunned down in front of his children in broad daylight near downtown Tijuana on June 22. Federal authorities took over the investigation in August after evidence linked the killing to organized crime.

New York, April 29, 2004—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) welcomes the ruling by a Mexican appeals court sentencing the two men accused of murdering U.S. journalist Philip True in December 1998 to 20 years in prison.

On Tuesday, April 27, a three-judge panel of the Jalisco State Supreme Court convicted two Huichol Indians, Juan Chivarra de la Cruz and his brother-in-law Miguel Hernández de la Cruz, of murdering San Antonio Express-News correspondent Philip True. The men were sentenced to 20 years in prison each and ordered to pay 117,315 Mexican pesos (U$10,000) in damages, Jorge Ochoa, the lawyer of True’s widow, Martha True, told CPJ.

While the Mexican press was able to report more freely about government corruption, an increase in criminal defamation charges and government pressure on journalists to reveal their sources cast a pall over the media in 2003.

As President Vicente Fox hit the halfway point of his six-year presidency, his chances of transforming the country were slipping away, and with it, the nation's optimism. On June 12, however, Mexico took a step toward curbing official corruption when the Federal Law on Transparency and Access to Public Information came into effect, opening the government's closely guarded secrets to public scrutiny.

Two years after the historic election of Vicente Fox, which ended 75 years of one-party rule in Mexico, the country is being governed somewhat more democratically. But in 2002, the president still faced urgent demands to break with the government's corrupt and secretive past in favor of transparency and public accountability.

New York, May 31, 2002—A three-judge appeals panel yesterday sentenced two men to a 13-year prison term for the 1998 murder of Philip True, a Mexico City correspondent for the San Antonio Express-News. The unanimous ruling overturned an August 2001 verdict that had acquitted the two men.

The men were found guilty of "intentional homicide," the San Antonio Express-News reported. The prosecution had sought a conviction on charges of "premeditated murder," which carries a sentence of up to 20 years. The defendants remain free while their lawyers consider whether to file a final appeal before a federal court.

President Vicente Fox's historic election in 2000 marked the end of the long-ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party's (PRI) domination of the country and its media. But the honeymoon between the president and the media ended in 2001 with increasingly critical coverage that reflected the public's frustration with the slow pace of reforms under the new government.

October 18, 2001
Mr. Francisco Ramírez Acuña
Governor of the State of Jalisco
Guadalajara, Mexico

Dear Mr. Ramírez Acuña:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the investigation into the 1998 murder of American journalist Philip True and the prosecution of the two suspects accused of this crime.

On August 3, Colotlán municipal judge José Luis Reyes Contreras acquitted Juan Chivarra de la Cruz and his brother-in-law Miguel Hernández de la Cruz, who had been accused of murdering True. The Jalisco State attorney general's office appealed the acquittals in a September 25 hearing before a panel of three judges from the State Supreme Court of Justice. A ruling on the appeal is expected soon.