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En español
OAXACA-BASED REPORTER KIDNAPPED AND TORTURED FOR 12 HOURS
MEXICO
Reporters Without Borders is appalled by the abduction and
mistreatment of reporter Pedro Matías Arrazola of the local daily
Noticias de Oaxaca and the national weekly Proceso, who was beaten and
psychologically tortured for about 12 hours on the night of 25 October
in the southern city of Oaxaca before being dumped outside the city.
"The abduction of Matías was incredibly barbaric and, given that
parliament is currently debating a bill to make attacks on journalists
a federal crime, we call for the federal authorities to be immediately
put in charge of the investigation," Reporters Without Borders said.
"If this case were left unpunished as so many others have, especially
in this region, there would be grounds for doubting the political will
expressed at a high level to end Mexico's tragic status as the western
hemisphere's most dangerous country for journalists," the press
freedom organisation added.
Matías was kidnapped as he left the newspaper to go home on the
evening of 25 October. His abductors beat him and terrorised him for
hours, simulating an execution, asking him how he preferred to die and
variously threatening to drag him along the ground behind their car,
cut off his genitals, rape him or behead him. They also threatened his
family members, saying they had been "located."
He was released the next morning some 30 km outside Oaxaca in
Tlacolula de Matamoros, without his car and without his papers, which
his abductors also took from him. Although psychologically
traumatised, he quickly filed a complaint with the public prosecutor's
office.
As well as reporting for Noticias de Oaxaca and Proceso, Matías
participates in broadcasts on a radio station, often criticising
members of the Oaxaca state government who belong to the Institutional
Revolutionary Party (PRI), the party that controlled the national
government until 2000. Some of his close friends think it was this
criticism that prompted the kidnapping.
Oaxaca state has become notorious for the serious violations of press
freedom and human rights that have occurred there in recent years.
Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and his supporters have been implicated in
violence against Noticias de Oaxaca in 2005 (see 29 September 2005
release) and the murder of US journalist Brad Will in 2006 (see 24
October 2008 release).
Reporteros sin Fronteras
Comunicado de prensa
29 de octubre de 2008
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