Breach/Valdez award given to three women

Jessica Xantomila and Nestor Jimenez

Newspaper La Jornada
Friday May 13, 2022, p. 4

Facing the serious situation insecurity and violent attacks against human rights defenders and journalists, today more than ever it is important to publicly recognize their work, their contribution to the construction of equitable societies and it is a priority to guarantee their protectionagencies of the United Nations (UN) and the French and Swiss embassies in Mexico coincided.

In the fourth installment of the Breach/Valdez Award for Journalism and Human Rights, Peter Grohmann, UN Resident Coordinator in Mexico, argued that the fight against impunity and injustice is one of the country’s priorities and it will be difficult to win if journalists continue to be the target of violence and carry out their work in precarious and risky employment conditions.

The prize awarded by the UN Information Center, the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) and UNESCO, as well as the French and Swiss embassies, among others, is in memory of Miroslava Breach, murdered on March 23, 2017 in Chihuahua, and Javier Valdez, killed on May 15 of that same year in Sinaloa, both correspondents for The Day.

The winners in this fourth edition were Gloria Piña, for her research The survivors forgotten by justiceabout women who resisted an attempted femicide, published in partnership with different media outlets, and Wendy Selene Pérez and Paula Mónaco, for their work Look at our death, expert woman in Mexicoregarding the battles waged by women from forensic teams in cases of femicide, published in Leopard.

At the ceremony, the representative of the UN-DH, Guillermo Fernández-Maldonado, urged the authorities to adopt measures to guarantee that communicators carry out their tasks with full freedom and securityand redouble efforts to end impunity.

Griselda Triana, wife of Javier Valdez, joined the calls to recognize the work of the reporters. Make clear our solidarity and empathy in dark times to practice journalism.

EU condemns murders

In a separate statement, the European Union and the ambassadors of Norway and Switzerland in Mexico condemned the recent murders of communicators Yesenia Mollinedo Falconi and Johana García Olivera, in Veracruz, as well as Luis Enrique Ramírez Ramos, in Sinaloa.

They stated that while waiting for the link between the homicides and the work of the three victims to be confirmed, these facts reflect once again the very serious degree of violence and intimidation faced by many journalists.

They expressed their concern about the lack of results in the investigations, and stated that although they take note of the arrests made in relation to the crimes perpetrated in 2022, they hope that the judicial procedures in these cases and others will allow the material and intellectual authors to be punished. .