The following is an archived transcription from original link which has expired.

México City, October 5, 1997.

Mexico Lets Off Reporters

By ADOLFO GARZA, Associated Press Reporter

Mexican authorities have decided not to prosecute New York Times reporters Sam Dillon and Craig Pyes, accused of criminal defamation by the governors of Sonora and Morelos, the Federal Attorney General's Office (PGR) announced Saturday. Under Mexican law, foreign citizens cannot be prosecuted for alleged criminal violations which take place outside of Mexico.

"We think that the Attorney General's decision is consistent with Mexican principles respecting the sovereign laws of other nations," the New York Times stated Saturday through its Mexico City bureau. "From the beginning, this case has been about basic press freedoms."

Sonora Gov. Manlio Fabio Beltrones and Morelos Gov. Jorge Carrillo Olea took legal action against Dillon and Pyes last March, after the publication of an article that claimed both governors had ties with a drug-trafficker.

The New York Times stated that its Feb. 23 story "cited a U.S. government document, as well as American officials, describing ties between two Mexican governors and a major narcotics trafficker."

The Times also called the story "an exercise of the most fundamental responsibilities of the press to inform the public about crucial issues."

The PGR said an investigation by a special prosecutor concluded that Beltrones and Carrillo "cannot be considered responsible for the alleged acts."

"We regret that the Attorney General did not conduct a deeper investigation into the charges raised in our story," the Times said. "Although the federal investigator asserted that he conducted an inquiry, he declined to examine any of the witnesses and documents cited in the story and that the Times offered to make available."

Unlike U.S. libel law, Mexican law allows for "criminal defamation" charges even if an article contains factually correct information. "This case serves to point up the inadequacies of protections available to Mexican journalists under an authoritarian press law written in 1917," the Times stated.

Public officials can claim to have been defamed by any publication which damages their reputation, even if the publication is true.

============================================================