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 **  *****  *****    ***           COMMUNIQUE # 4 - 27
 **  **     **      ** **          10 July 1995
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International Freedom of Expression eXchange Clearing House
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FEARS OF CENSORSHIP IN MEXICO WHERE THE "REVOLUTION IS ON-LINE"

GOVERNMENT FACES CHALLENGE TO OVERCOME HUMAN RIGHTS ABUSES

By now, news has spread that the use of words over weapons in the
uprising in Mexico has been facilitated by Internet access.
"Chiapas: the revolution will not be televised (but it will be
on-line)" is the sub-heading of a story entitled "Net Wars", by
Darrin Wood in Issue 3 of "Index on Censorship". Not much news of
the social unrest would normally filter out to the rest of the
world, but the "information highway" has provided an outlet. Wood
quotes a "Time" magazine article which explains this "new net-
journalism" as follows: "Most journalism is top down, flowing
from a handful of writers to the masses of readers. But on the
Net, news is gathered from the bottom up -- the many speaking to
the many -- and it bears the seeds of revolutionary change." The
Internet has boosted freedom of expression worldwide but,
unfortunately, governments are beginning to look at ways to
legislate electronic expression.

The "Index" article says that some people, particularly
investors, are concerned that the revolution will take off in
cyberspace when it would never have succeeded in "the real
world." Others, however, say that the threat of a "netwar" is
overstated because, for example, the technology is still
dependent on on-line access, which can be difficult to obtain in
Mexico. According to "Index", a journalist working in Mexico,
John Ross, "sees the concern about netwar as just another attempt
at censorship."

The murder of journalists in Mexico is one of the many human
rights abuses that continues to plague the country, says
a recently-released report entitled "Democracy and Human Rights
in Mexico", written by Andrew Reding for the World Policy
Institute at the New School for Social Research in New York.
Journalists are among individuals targeted as groups in Mexico,
with the most serious risk factor being the lengths to which they
will go to "exercise their constitutional rights to dissent and,
more specifically, to criticize the government or government
officials, or present a serious challenge to the political status
quo."

The report cites the cases of several journalists who were among
dozens murdered over the past decade, most of them for
"investigating corruption and links to drug trafficking." Reding
states, "At least as alarming as the murders themselves is the
lack of any conclusive investigations by federal and state
authorities." The report cites the findings of the United Nations
Human Rights Committee which in March 1994 condemned "the gross
violation of both the right to life and the right to freedom of
expression constituted by the frequent murders of journalists,
which has reached alarming proportions." Copies of the report can
be obtained from the World Policy Institute, New School for
Social Research, 65 Fifth Avenue, Suite 413, New York, NY 10003,
U.S.A.

Freedom House in February not only condemned the Mexican
government's military offensive against the Zapatista rebels in
Chiapas, but also issued a statement condemning the government's
"policy of restricting the access of the media and human rights
monitors to the area of Chiapas," according to the Spring issue
(Vol. XI, No. 1) of "Freedom Monitor", a twice-yearly Freedom
House report.

In addition, the Inter-Church Committee on Human Rights in Latin
America (ICCHRLA) issued a report in June on the expulsion of
three international priests from Mexico on 23 June who had been
working in San Cristobal de las Casas in Chiapas. The Ministry of
the Interior stated that they were being deported for "carrying
out proselytizing actions with a clear and intense participation
in issues of national politics." The three priests were
apparently on the army's blacklist ("that the government denies
exists") of 2,200 Mexicans and foreigners "accused of being
Zapatista supporters," says ICCHRLA. For a copy of the report,
contact ICCHRLA at 129 St. Clair Avenue W, Toronto, Ontario, M4V
1N5, Canada; tel: +1(416) 921 0801; fax: +1(416) 921 3843; or e-
mail: icchrla@web.apc.org.

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