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México
March 25, 2011
IAPA outraged at murder of Mexican journalist
IAPA


José Luis Cerda Melléndez (www.radioquintanaroo.co
It also deplores attack on Brazilian blogger

Miami (March 25, 2011)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed strong condemnation of the murder in Mexico of a television program host, called for solidarity among news media and urged the government of President Felipe Calderón to comply with its commitment to make crimes against journalists federal offenses and to ensure the safety of news men and women.

José Luis Cerda Meléndez, 33, known in television circles as “La Gata” (The Tabby), hosted the program titled “El Club” (The Club). He was abducted last night in the northern Mexico City of Monterrey after he left the television station together with another two persons, whose identity was not disclosed. His body, with a bullet wound to the head and signs of torture, was discovered this morning.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Impunity Committee, Juan Francisco Ealy Ortiz, president of the Mexico City newspaper El Universal, expressed his “solidarity with the journalist’s family members and colleagues,” adding that “this is the time to prove that as Mexican media we are united and we have a common commitment against violence.”

For his part, IAPA President Gonzalo Marroquín, of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Siglo 21, lamented the crime and called on the Mexican government “to comply with its promises to pursue making crimes against journalists federal offenses and the creating a system of protection,” both commitments made last year by President Calderón to international delegations of the IAPA and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

The murder of the Televisa program conductor is the second killing of a journalist in Mexico this year. Last month Rodolfo Ochoa Moreno, a technical engineer with the Grupo Multimedios multimedia group in Torreón, Coahuila state, was murdered. It was also learned that missing since March 8 has been journalist Nicolás López Olguín, a stringer for the Veracruz weekly newspapers Horizonte and Acayután and the daily paper La Verdad.

Cerda Meléndez’ murder occurred the same day that hundreds of news media in Mexico signed what is known as the Agreement on News Coverage of Violence, with the objective of upholding the high level of reporting, avoiding its becoming propaganda for those who resort to violence.

Brazil

The IAPA also deplored an attack on blogger Ricardo Gama on March 23 in Copacabana, Rio de Janeiro, in which assailants traveling in a vehicle shot at him three times. Gama, 40, was hit in the head, neck and shoulder and his now in hospital. He is known for his exposures of drug traffickers and criticism of the police and the city and state governments, and recently of drug traffickers operating in the area, according to local media reports.




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