Alejandro Encinas said that 45% of the aggressions suffered by journalists in the country come from agents of the state at the local level

The Undersecretary for Human Rights, Alejandro Encinas, admitted that the problem of violence against journalists could not be stopped by the government of the Republic. This was reported during the Forum on Freedom of Expression held on March 16.

It should be added that there are currently the same trends of violence against journalists as compared to the government of Felipe Calderón, where there were 101 murders of journalists, or in the case of Peña Nieto with 96. Today, in the López Obrador government there is a record of 56 journalists murdered.

On the other hand, according to the official's statement, 8 beneficiaries of the mechanism for the protection of journalists have now been killed.

Faced with the critical situation of violence that journalists are going through in Mexico, (in just three months this year, 8 reporters have been murdered), the undersecretary assured that the mechanism will have to ensure that all public entities at their different levels contribute and carry out their duties to ensure the prevention of crime.

This comes just one day after the murder of Armando Linares, who was taken his life on March 15 in Zitácuaro, Michoacán.

In this regard, Alejandro Encinas explained that two of the members of the media outlet to which the director of Monitor Michoacán belonged, had the protection mechanism; he asserted that Armando Linares, who would have been the third, refused to enter the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and refused to receive support from the state government.

On the other hand, journalists have assured that Armando's calls for alert and help were not heard, the authorities were omitted by failing to provide the necessary protection mechanisms to ensure their integrity. He's dead now.”

Alejandro Encinas stressed that on many occasions what is in dispute is not only the exercise of freedom of expression or the right to defend human rights, but that there is also confrontation with criminal groups and groups embedded in public institutions, which have become the main factor of aggression and intolerance against the media and journalists.

Thus, according to official information, the worst level of aggressions comes mainly from organized crime, “not only because of the silence of voices but also because of the dispute and control of territories in many areas of the national territory.”

The murders of journalists in Mexico currently account for 58% of the murders against journalists that have occurred in Latin America, according to the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

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