His Excellency President Vicente Fox
Mexico City, Mexico
c/o Permanent Representative to UN
E-mail: mexico@un.int
15 September 2004

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to express our outrage at the murder of newspaper columnist Francisco Arratia Saldierna.

According to reports, on 31 August Mr Arratia, who wrote the "Portavoz" column for four newspapers - El Imparcial, El Regional, Mercurio and El Cinco - in the state of Tamaulipas was beaten to death by unidentified assailants in the border city of Matamoros. Mr Arratia was abducted by a group of individuals as he returned home from a car dealership he ran. He was brutally tortured and his body dumped outside the offices of the Red Cross. Mr Arratia died several hours later in hospital.

We are concerned that the murder of Mr Arratia, who often wrote about organised crime and political corruption, may have been related to his professional work. We are also concerned that the climate of impunity created by the authorities’ failure to fully investigate and prosecute previous murders of journalists has significantly contributed to the hostile environment facing the media in the country. Mr Arratia‚s assassination follows that of journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, who was murdered in what appeared to be a contract killing on 22 June.

We respectfully call on you to ensure that the murder of Mr Arratia is thoroughly investigated and that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice. We urge you to do everything possible to create an environment in which journalist are able to carry out their duties without fear of violence.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,
Seok Hyun Hong
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO