Oaxaca journalist investigating Brad Will's murder is shot

New York, June 13, 2007 Infoshop News

The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the shooting of a Mexican journalist who had received death threats in connection with his investigation of the slaying of a U.S. journalist during violent street protests last fall in the southern city of Oaxaca.

Oaxaca journalist investigating Brad Will's murder is shot

A Oaxacan reporter who had been subject to death threats relating to his
investigation into the murder of U.S. journalist Brad Will was shot on
Tuesday and seriously injured. Below is a press release with the details
from the Committee to Protect Journalists.

- Eileen Clancy
I-Witness Video

website: iwitnessvideo.info

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http://www.cpj.org/news/2007/americas/mexico13jun07na.html

Committee to Protect Journalists

MEXICO: Oaxaca journalist shot and wounded

New York, June 13, 2007— The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns the
shooting of a Mexican journalist who had received death threats in
connection with his investigation of the slaying of a U.S. journalist
during violent street protests last fall in the southern city of Oaxaca.

Misael Sánchez Sarmiento, a reporter for the Oaxaca-based daily Tiempo,
was shot twice Tuesday evening by an unidentified assailant outside his
home on the outskirts of Oaxaca, 323 miles (520 kilometers) southeast of
Mexico City, the paper’s director, Wenceslao Añorve, told CPJ. Sánchez was
wounded in his jaw and left leg and was in stable condition today after
surgery.

Sánchez covered local political news and was in charge of the daily
paper’s investigative unit. He had received death threats in November 2006
after reporting on the killing the previous month of U.S. journalist
Bradley Will, an independent documentary filmmaker and reporter for the
Web site Indymedia. Will was shot while documenting clashes between
activists and government agents in the provincial capital.

Añorve said he did not know the motive behind the attack, but believes it
is related to Sánchez’s journalism. The local police and state attorney’s
office are investigating, he said.

“We condemn the shooting attack on Misael Sánchez Sarmiento,” said Joel
Simon, CPJ’s executive director. “We call on Oaxaca authorities to
thoroughly investigate the attack, find all those responsible and bring
them to justice.”

Tiempo is a pro-government paper that has criticized the local
antigovernment group Popular Assembly of the People of Oaxaca (APPO),
which clashed last year with Oaxaca authorities during a months-long
conflict that paralyzed the city.

The conflict began last June when authorities used tear gas to break up a
demonstration by striking teachers. That prompted leftist activists to
take to the streets in a bid to oust Oaxacan Gov. Ulises Ruiz Ortiz. Media
outlets were targeted by both sides in the ensuing unrest, and several
journalists were beaten and harassed while covering the violence. The
conflict peaked with Will’s murder in October.

Since 2000, six journalists have been killed in direct reprisal for their
work in Mexico, and CPJ is investigating the circumstances surrounding the
slayings of 12 others. In addition, five journalists have disappeared
since 2005, three of them this year.

On May 9, a CPJ delegation met with Arturo Sarukhan Casamitjana, the
Mexican ambassador to the United States. The delegation called on Mexico’s
federal government to take concrete steps to protect press freedom and
prosecute those responsible for crimes against the press.

source.
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