The murder of American journalist Brad Roland Will, committed in 2006 in Santa Lucía del Camino, is one of the attacks on newsmen that continue to go unpunished in our country, is the conclusion of a report by the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur for the promotion and protection of the right to freedom of opinion and of expression, Frank La Rue, who visited Mexico with the objective of observing the state of freedom of opinion and free speech in the country.

In the report, produced August 9-24 following an invitation made by the Mexican government, he noted that the Special Prosecutor’s Office for Dealing With Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE in its Spanish-language acronym), since February 15, 2010 had carried out 143 investigations, however since its creation in 2006 the agency had not achieved conviction of a single guilty person and had brought only four cases to trial.

In the report the Special Rapporteur warns that there is a generalized climate of impunity in the country regarding cases of violence against journalists, even in the most serious crimes, such as murders, disappearances and abductions.

He explained that during his visit he did not receive concrete or sufficient information about convictions in these cases, hence his statement that impunity prevails and this creates a favorable atmosphere for chronic repetition of violations of human rights and the total lack of defense of the victims and their families.

For La Rue the figures reported, and the additional information received, show that since 2000 Mexico is the most dangerous country in which to work as a journalist in the Americas.

He also felt that the few results achieved by the FEADLE are attributable in part to the lack of will of the previous public prosecutors to take up the cases and implement an adequate program of action, but also to the lack of autonomy and resources and a deficient definition of its area of competence.

However, he said that the federal departments should also make an effort to provide its agencies responsible for applying justice and its judges with more and better operational assurances, including more autonomy, resources and technical facilities for those entities responsible for penalizing attacks upon journalists.