Outrage Over Ingrid Escamilla Gruesome Death Photos Initiates Inquiry Over Media Practices

The brutal femicide of a twenty-five-year-old lady in Mexico and the illustration of the victim's body by media outlets has initiated heated calls for policy changes. They printed leaked pictures of the woman's body.

According to the authorities, Ingrid Escamilla's body was found at a house in Mexico City on Sunday. Her body was missing organs and it had been skinned.

A 46-year-old man soaked in blood and found at the scene was arrested.

In some of the available videos, the man confessed to stabbing Ingrid following an argument with her. His removal of her skin was to remove any evidence.

Claudia Sheinbaum, the mayor of Mexico City, claimed femicide cases were absolutely condemnable. He also urged the prosecutors to seek maximum sentencing for this crime.

Police confirmed that the arrested man was Ingrid's husband. Anger from protesters and activists were pointed towards tabloids, online news sites, and local papers who posted the explicit and gruesome pictures of the slain woman's body.

Pasala, one of the papers that printed the pictures on the front cover with the headline, "It was Cupid's fault," has come under heavy criticism for the way they handled the situation.

Protesters and activists, including Mexico's President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, have spoken out against the way media outlets are handling cases of femicides like Ingrid's case.

The President said that the person responsible for leaking the pictures "needs to be punished" even as calls from Mexico City's Prosecutor came about considering changing the law to make it a crime to leak or distribute pictures of victims.

There has been a rise in reported femicide cases in Mexico in the past years, with 2019 seeing 1,006 reported cases, while 2018 had 912 cases.

Alejandro Gertz, Mexico Attorney General, pointed out the increase of femicide cases over the last five years. There has been an increase of 137%, and he claimed justice for vulnerable groups had to be sought; otherwise, authorities would not be doing their jobs.

Not enough perpetrators are caught, and not enough cases are classified as femicides, according to some Women's rights groups.

Mexico's National Institute of Women in a scathing statement on Wednesday condemned the actions of the media outlets.

The Institute said the distribution of pictures of such violence caused further victimization to the families and the victims.

The dignity and privacy of the victim and their families would be in jeopardy if media outlets continued to distribute indecent images of criminal violence against women, according to the Institute, and they called for the media to practice ethical reporting.

In a move to counterbalance the morbid publication of pictures of Ingrid's body online, people have been posting pictures of her when she was alive.