Mexican government has failed to protect journalists, watchdog group says

— -- Moises Sanchez was determined to let nothing stop him in his pursuit of the truth.

He had limited formal education, so he read as much as he could. He had limited means, so he drove a taxi to support himself and his family while he personally distributed La Union, his free newspaper.

And he had limited protection, because lived in Mexico, where dozens of journalists have been killed for their work, so he adopted a valiant motto and printed it in the top right hand corner of every front page: “Living with fear is not an option.”

But on January 2, 2015, six armed men invaded Sanchez’s home in Medellin, outside Veracruz, abducted the 49-year-old editor and threw him into a car. His mutilated body was discovered outside the city three weeks later.

A powerful suspect was quickly identified: Medellin mayor Omar Cruz Reyes, the recent subject of critical coverage by Sanchez, who demanded the mayor take a tougher stance on organized crime. A former policeman turned drug trafficker who confessed to being involved in the murder told investigators that Sanchez had been kidnapped and murdered at Cruz’s behest, a charge Cruz later denied.

Despite testimony implicating Cruz, however, federal authorities were slow to take up the case, disputing the notion that his killing was a politically motivated attack on the press, and those delays allowed the mayor to escape before he could be stripped of immunity from prosecution. He disappeared and remains on the run.

The Sanchez case is one of three highlighted in a special report released by the Committee to Protect Journalists on Tuesday, charging that the Mexican federal government has failed to protect journalists like Sanchez amid a decade-long rise in kidnappings and murders of media members.

Mexico is among the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist, the watchdog group found, in part because “a lack of political will” to address the crisis effectively allows “criminal gangs, corrupt officials, and cartels to silence their critics” with impunity. CPJ described the problem in Veracruz, where Sanchez was killed, as “particularly acute.”

“Being an investigative journalist in Mexico requires more than contacts, networks, qualifications, preparation, talent, and a free media outlet,” wrote Adela Navarro Bello, general director of the Mexican magazine Zeta, in the report’s foreword. “It requires knowing safety practices, laws and legal proceedings, getting involved in some activism, and being willing to die for your profession.”

CPJ has documented more than 50 cases involving the murder or disappearance of a member of the Mexican media since 2010, including three so far in 2017, and the report notes that in the vast majority of those cases, the parties responsible were never brought to justice.

The report also highlights the failure to two key federal institutions charged with protecting journalists — the Special Prosecutor for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) and the Federal Protection Mechanism of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists — and urged Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto to make strengthening those institutions a priority.

Though his office has pledged to safeguard freedom of expression, Peña Nieto, whose six-year term concludes in November 2018, is running out of time to summon the “strong political will” needed to enact reforms.

“If justice does not prevail before his term ends,” CPJ warns, “Peña Nieto risks leaving a legacy of endemic impunity.

In response to questions from ABC News, a government spokesperson issued a statement by the office of the president.

“The Mexican Government recognizes the labor of journalists in strengthening our democracy and therefore condemns any attacks against journalists and media outlets,” the statement reads. “President Enrique Peña Nieto reiterates his commitment to freedom of expression. He is concerned by the aggressions against the integrity of any journalist. He is convinced that each offense must be prosecuted and punished.”

The Mexican government pointed to recent steps it has taken in order to protect its press, but according to CPJ, they have failed to end the “deadly cycle of violence and impunity.” The federal government named a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against journalists in 2006 and expanded the office in 2010, but in all that time, according to the report, the office has only mustered three convictions.

While the protection mechanism has provided emergency support, including evacuations, to a few hundred journalists under threat since 2012, its director told CPJ the organization has struggled to meet the demand for its services.

“We started out really badly,” Patricia Colchero Aragonés told CPJ. “We didn’t have the money to implement protection measures, and the first year and a half we were lagging. You can imagine that with the number of cases we had to handle.”

The government, while acknowledging the need to consolidate and strengthen both institutions, also called on local authorities to step up their own efforts.

“Undoubtedly, the biggest challenge we face is impunity, which generates and multiplies these events,” the statement continues. “The murders of journalists demand the intervention of the federal government, but they also require a joint effort with local authorities. It is worth recalling that it is the responsibility of local authorities to guarantee that these crimes do not remain unpunished.”

According to Claudio Lomnitz, however, who studies Mexican history, politics and culture within Columbia University’s Institute for Latin American Studies, those local authorities are often part of the problem.

Local journalists are particularly vulnerable, he says, because the local governments they cover are, in some cases, allied with criminal organizations, but the federal government has been reluctant to push for politically volatile reforms, opting instead for half measures that fail to address the real culprit: corruption.

“Reducing violence against journalists cannot happen without reigning in the free-wheeling corruption of governors and municipal presidents,” Lomnitz told ABC News. “In order for the federal government truly to do all it can to protect journalists, it needs to move beyond providing police protection to threatened practitioners, and confront the structural causes of the violence, which prominently include collusion of local authorities with criminal organizations.”

La Union, meanwhile, continues to operate under new leadership. Sanchez’s son, Jorge, told CPJ that he has taken over the publication.

His father’s motto remains in the top right hand corner of every front page.

ABC News' Anne Laurent contributed to this report.