A international journalistic advocacy group has filed a complaint against Mexico with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, alleging that the country has failed to discharge its responsibility to protect journalists from acts of violence.
Since 2000 there have been 75 confirmed killings of Mexican journalists, all of whom were murdered while in the course of their official duties. At least 20 were women. In a September report the United Nations said that Mexico is the most dangerous place in the world for reporters -- even more so than combat zones like Iraq and Afghanistan (details: http://mexicogulfreporter.blogspot.com/2011/09/united-nations-says-mexico-is-death.html).
One of the complaints lodged by the organization, which is known as Article 19, is that Mexican law enforcement officials are prone to make groundless accusations against murdered journalists, sometimes alleging that the victims themselves were involved with drug cartels. A former chief prosecutor of Veracruz did just that in July, in a high profile case involving a woman reporter who was kidnapped and decapitated. The prosecutor has since resigned his post. Details of her murder here: http://mexicogulfreporter-supplement.blogspot.com/2011/11/veracruz-press-furious-over-prosecutors.html.
Article 19 also claims that there have been hundreds of cases of abuse of journalists by Mexican police and military forces during the five year old war against the drug cartels, including threats, physical assaults, kidnapping, murders and some who have simply disappeared. The Mexican government has not yet responded to the allegations.
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