Journalism bodies condemn ‘intolerable’ remarks by Martinelli lawyer

On Friday, April 30, the National Council of Journalism, the Forum of Journalists of Panama, and the Panamanian Radio Broadcasting Association cataloged as “improper” and “intolerable” the statements of Martinelli defense lawyer Ronier Ortiz. The journalistic unions emphasized that these “expressions, coming from a lawyer who is, at the same time, auxiliary to justice, are not only improper but intolerable.”

In the statement from the groups, it was recalled on Wednesday, April 28, in the program La Audiencia, which is broadcast on the Nex TV channel , the defense team of former President Ricardo Martinelli, particularly Ortiz, made the statements against Foco and the coverage of his client and news facts of his surroundings.

“… I want you to know, we are going to attack you. Then we don’t want them to be crying, because they are crybabies, both you and those who pay them. They are cowards and crybabies. Then they talk about freedom of expression. That is not freedom of expression. That is why, Fernando [Correa], that you see in Mexico the list of those journalists, who like to be getting into things that do not interest them, how it grows every day, how they are murdered because, at the end of the road, there are people who have no tolerance” said Ortiz.

In Mexico, the unions recalled, hundreds of people die every year, including journalists, most of them victims of drug cartels and organized crime. “These issues are of interest to the entire country, including the 144 journalists who have been sacrificed with impunity in the exercise of their duty.”

For this reason, Reporters Without Borders has classified Mexico as the most dangerous country without a war in the world to practice journalism.

The words of the lawyer Ortiz, when referring to Mexican colleagues: “… they like to be getting into things that do not interest them …”, clearly “justify his murder and reveal a no longer so hidden direct threat against local journalists and the exercise of freedom of expression and information in Panama ”, the groups emphasized in a statement released this Friday afternoon.

“Consequently, our organizations strongly condemn these expressions, which constitute an affront and direct threats to the exercise of journalism in Panama, Mexico or any other country,” they said.

The School of Journalism of the Faculty of Social Communication of the University of Panama condemned this Friday “the unfortunate statements of Ortiz, referring to the crimes of journalists in Mexico, demonstrating joy and satisfaction for what may happen to Panamanian journalists.”

Garrit Geneteau, director of the School of Journalism at the School of Communication at the University of Panama, said it is regrettable that a lawyer who is supposed to know the law makes such threatening and shameful remarks.

According to Geneteau, assassinating journalists is to silence freedom of expression and the right of peoples to information.