The National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) requested the mechanism for the protection of human defenders and journalists to reconsider their first refusal and exercise protection measures for Sanjuana Martínez Montemayor, director of Notimex.

The journalist has been accused of making unjustified dismissals in the news agency, of exercising violations of the collective labor contract, and even orchestrating attacks on social networks against journalists.

As reported by the CNDH through a statement, Martínez Montemayor requested protection of the mechanism ‘When its psychological and moral integrity was violated and attacked’ by the Single Union of Notimex workers (Sutnotimex), as well as the Organization Article 19.

In the first instance, Sutotimex is indicated for creating media assemblies and issuing biased and false information from the agency's director.This, after the aforementioned made adjustments to the personnel to comply with the austerity measures of the government and for alleged irregularities found at the beginning of their commission.

The CNDH also indicated that the journalist has defamed, among other things, for making alleged attacks on social networks against journalists, “being the case that she has been attacked and defamed in media and her family threatened in these networks;all formed by former Notimex workers ".

Regarding the accusations against article 19, he was accused of publishing a report without sustenance, in which he blamed Sanjuana Martínez to attack journalists and organize discredit campaigns in social networks.

“In January 2021, article 19 personnel continued to send dozens of NGOs and international human rights organizations his“ report ”where the journalist Martínez Montemayor shows as a human rights rapist, as an aggressor of journalists, severely affecting hisImage built for 35 years of independent and honest journalism ".

Therefore, the commission requested the protection mechanism to reconsider the refusal he had previously made to the request of Sanjuana Martínez, of prevention and protection of the ‘human rights that assist him as a journalist’.

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It was recalled that the law for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists is intended to seek any natural person, medium of communication and dissemination both public and private, so deny the protection of Martínez Montemayor, for belonging to an agencyof the State, would contravene the principle of non -discrimination.

The aggressions, defamations and threats against relatives of Sanjuana are due to their journalistic work, added the CNDH.

"In addition to the above, since the Notimex agency is not allowed and, especially its Sanjuana Martínez Montemayor directive, has deprived the Mexican population of a state of communication of the State".

The above could violate the right to population information, said the commission.For these reasons, he promised to monurally monitor the case of Martínez Montemayor, "waiting for the mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists to act".

Mechanism response

After the request of the CNDH, the mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists reiterated his refusal to incorporate the director of Notimex, with the same arguments of the first time he rejected him.

Sanjuana Martínez requested to join the mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists at the beginning of April of the present year.

In the trades and writings presented to the protection instrument, he told civil society organizations, media and higher education institutions such as their aggressors.

And on April 29 the protection mechanism answered with a refusal to the petition because the situations that the director of Notimex presented "do not occur on the occasion of her journalistic work and her exercise of her freedom of expression".

Find out: order Notimex to stop work and respect their union strike;They are legal arguments, says the agency

He added that the accusations are related to the exercise of his commission as the head of an institution of the Government of Mexico.

Although officials have the right to guarantee their life, integrity and personal security, the legal and institutional system is the one that offers those ways, added the mechanism.

"It should be clarified that the protection mechanism has no power to pronounce on the facts that the general director points out, nor on the labor conflict that occurs in the institution that heads".

The mechanism reiterated its willingness to continue collaborating with the CNDH to "address this matter through the respective complaint procedure".

And what did Sutnotimex answer?

After the issuance of positioning by the CNDH, the Single Union of Notimex workers rejected the accusations made against him, about aggressions and threats to the holder of the agency, and indicated that they are false signs.

Through a statement published on social networks Sutotimex said that, on the contrary, he had also requested the intervention of both the commission and the protection mechanism.

“This union filed two complaints to the CNDH: one dated November 22, 2019 and another, dated, on March 26, 2020, which were not attended, as well as the individual demands of the workers who were violated inThe news agency ".

They added that, ‘in the face of harassment, harassment and discrimination’ climate by the General Directorate, headed by Martínez Montemayor, the CNDH rejected her complaints.

In November 2020, members of the union requested to be incorporated into the protection mechanism, but considering that their case was a labor issue, it was not taken as the competence of the agency.

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“It is striking that almost 15 months after the strike in Notimex, time in which the workers have received aggressions and intimidation from the General Directorate of Notimex, with an improper use of public institutions, and that today is soughta solution to the labor conflict from the Presidency of the Republic, the head of Notimex makes such accusations, in order to divert the attention of the labor conflict ”.

The Sutnotimex assured that the accusations reflect ‘old practices of friends and influence’, since the headlines of the CNDH and Notimex have openly expressed their friendship.

This 'influence' to attack the strikers, added the union, has been replicated on previous occasions with the Attorney General's Office (FGR), the National Guard, the Federal Electricity Commission (CFE) and the Secretariat of Public Function (SFP).

Context to the case of Sanjuana

It should be remembered that for more than a year, the Notimex agency is on strike and has not worked for about 10 months.The above was motivated by Sutnotimex accusations towards Sanjuana for unjustified dismissals, lack of payments and violations of the collective work contract.

In the statement issued by the CNDH, it was pointed out that the competent authorities endorsed the union's strike with ‘a fraudulent count’, because he voted personal who did not work or had already renounced the agency.

"The labor authorities pressed so to accept the unsustainable conditions of a union who no longer had workers within the agency, but was the holder of the collective labor contract," added the commission.

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In addition, after being accused of promoting irregularities within Notimex, Sanjuana Martínez told the CNDH that he had gone to the organization article 19, who initially agreed to support her;However, she shortly after she informed her that she could not attend to her because it was "government journalists’.

In June 2020, an investigation was published, in which article 19 participated, where the use of false accounts was indicated, created from the General Directorate of Notimex, with which extrabajadores, Sutotimex members and journalists were attacked and journalists.

Given this, the US government department, in a report on the situation of human rights, told Sanjuana Martínez as a participant and provocative of attacks against Mexican reporters.

To better understand: they order Notimex to stop work and respect their union strike;They are legal arguments, says the agency

In addition, she added that the journalist ordered journalists to eliminate or not publish content that was related to certain government institutions, as well as public officials.

The above triggered a criticism from President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who accused article 19 of being funded by foreign companies, and even by the State Department.

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