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Home / Get Involved / Urgent Actions / Urgent Action: Mexican Journalists’ Organization - Comunicación e Información de la Mujer (CIMAC): Denounce Attacks against Ms. Blanca Esther Buenfil Vanegas

Urgent Action: Mexican Journalists’ Organization - Comunicación E Información De La Mujer (CIMAC): Denounce Attacks Against Ms. Blanca Esther Buenfil Vanegas

Source: CIMAC

13/06/2012

Mexican journalist Ms. Blanca Esther Buenfil Vanegas is victim of professional and personal defamation of character after publication of an article criticizing corruption within a government agency under the leadership of State Spokesperson Francisco Rangel Rosado Ruiz.

On June 10 2011, Ms. Buenfil Vanegas reported[1]  to the Office of the Attorney General defamation against her name by an anonymous email on June 8, 2011.      

Following publication of Ms. Buenfil Vanegas’ article, co-authored by Mr. Eduardo Camacho Rivera and published under her direction in El Cuarto Poder, an article signed by Óscar González appeared in El Periódico de Quintana Roo on October 3, 2011, which portrayed Ms. Buenfil Vanegas as an unskilled, “functional illiterate,” someone who managed to publish in Diario de Yucatán due to lack of journalists in town. The article also called into question a piece she had written on the governor’s spokesperson, Eduardo Figueroa Morales Sadot. Organizations and networks in the region have combined efforts in a joint action expressing their concern around the consequent impacts on Ms. Buenfil Vanegas’ personal and professional life, including loss of source of employment due to defamation.  

A measure of the Office of the Attorney General in the city of Chetumal was presented on April 20 2012, reporting that the case is currently under the Special Prosecutor on Crimes against Freedom of Expression.[2]

A women’s right to freedom from violence and the right to freedom of expression of journalists must be guaranteed. The Republic of Mexico has an obligation toward both these ends as having signed and ratified the Convention on the Prevention, Punishment and Eradication of Violence against Women “Convención Belem do Pará” (1995) and the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women, CEDAW (1981). Moreover, Mexico’s law on women’s access to a life free of violence (2007) recognizes both psychological violence (art. 6) and institutional violence (art. 18), as any act or omission that harms the psychological stability, which includes insults, humiliation, devaluation, destructive comparisons, and threats that lead to depression, isolation, devaluation of self-esteem and suicide; and as acts or omissions of civil servants and of any order of government that discriminate or are intended to delay, hinder or prevent the enjoyment or exercise of human rights of women and their access to the enjoyment of public policies designed to prevent, respond, investigate, punish and eradicate the different types of violence.  

In consideration of the actions filed against Ms. Buenfil Vanegas and in recognition of the Republic’s human rights obligations under international and national law, we ask that the authorities of the State Quintana Roo:

  • Conduct a thorough investigation into the case
  • Guarantee the security and integrity of Ms. Blanca Esther Buenfil Vanegas

Please write immediately in English, Spanish or your own language to:

The call to action is in response to joint statement by organizations and networks of journalists regarding Blanca Esther Buenfil Vanegas [please see the pdf file below].

[1] Record PGR/QROO/CHE/123/2011/11-11. Followed by Record PGR/QROO/CHET/006/2012-1

[2] Filed as record number A.P. 05/FEADLE/2012 by Lic. Berenice Hernández García.

Article License: Copyright - Article License Holder: CIMAC

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