Economic and political turmoil throughout Latin America in 2002 had profound implications for the region’s press. Sharp decreases in advertising revenue bankrupted many media outlets, while the failure to consolidate democratic reforms left the media vulnerable to legal and physical assault. Five journalists were killed in Latin America in 2002 for their work.
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.
The U.S. government took aggressive measures in 2002 to shield some of its activities from press scrutiny. These steps not only reduced access for U.S. reporters but had a global ripple effect, with autocratic leaders citing U.S. government actions to justify repressive policies.
Dear Mr. Martínez: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) strongly protests the detention of Mexican journalist Isabel Arvide, who was charged with criminal defamation on December 23, 2002, by Chihuahua State attorney general, Jesús Solís Silva. Arvide, a Mexico Citybased journalist and author who has written many exposés about drug traffickers, corruption, and violence, as…
New York, August 19, 2002—The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is alarmed that Mexican journalist and author Isabel Arvide has been charged with criminal defamation. Judge Armando Rodrígues Gaytán of the Second Penal Court in the district of Morales, Chihuahua, in north central Mexico, confirmed to CPJ that Arvide has been charged with criminal defamation.…
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,”…
New York, May 10, 2002—A Mexican newspaper publisher appeared on Wednesday, May 8, before a public prosecutor in Mexico City to respond to criminal defamation charges brought against him by a local politician. Alejandro Junco de la Vega, president and publisher of the Mexico City daily REFORMA, was charged over an article alleging that Carlos…
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.
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.