Mexico Reporters’ Rights in Peril

The ominous trend of summoning journalists to Mexican courts to demand information poses a serious threat to the advancement of a free press and should stop immediately. Journalists in Mexico should be able to work under the same legal protection that applies to their colleagues in places like California.

More and more, prosecutors and defense lawyers, instead of doing their own investigations, are demanding that reporters testify about criminal cases and name confidential sources. The practice is chilling. If the reporter testifies, credibility among readers is lost; if the reporter refuses, contempt of court and other serious legal consequences can result.

The principles of a free press are stated in the Mexican constitution and in the Declaration of Chapultepec, signed in 1994 by most of the heads of state in North America. It states that “every person has the right to seek and receive information, express opinions and disseminate them freely. No one may restrict or deny these rights.”

Unfortunately, journalists in Mexico lack the basic legal recourse to instruments of press freedom such as California’s so-called shield law, which spares reporters from revealing confidential sources and unpublished information. Under California law, reporters are “immune from contempt for failing to comply with a subpoena under specific circumstances.”

Some Mexican journalists have demanded that the national Congress enact similar legislation. We support their demand.