killing the messenger

#Mexico: Citizens' & Reporters' Outcry

As these excerpted articles show, with elections nearing in Mexico there is growing protest from all quarters- demanding an end to violence, corruption and injustice.

(Reuters) - "Mexico's presidential candidates on Monday faced the families of people murdered, mutilated, and kidnapped in drug violence in a meeting that was marked by strong condemnations of corrupt police and politicians."

(Pulsamerica) - "The marches have taken politicians, academics and journalists by surprise, as it is several decades since students from all backgrounds have participated in the same movement...Analysts agree that young people are reacting to the violence, corruption, inequality and poverty prevalent in the country at the moment, where they feel themselves to be at greatest risk."

(NewsSafetyBlog) - "“We are living in terror,” said former Veracruz photojournalist Miguel Angel Lopez Solana, who is seeking asylum in the United States for himself and his wife. His father and brother, both also journalists, and his mother were killed by unidentified gunmen last year."

Much of the outcry is contained south of the border as US press continues to underreport the threats faced by average citizens and particularly journalists in Mexico.  As INSI's Rodney Pinder reports in the NewsSafetyBlog post linked above, writing on discussions from the Knight Center's 10th Austin Forum for Journalism In The America's - 

"Publicity is a natural weapon for journalists in danger, but one speaker pointed out the world’s press paid little attention to the plight of news men and women in Latin America – “Why this silence as journalists are under attack? The killing of one affects us all.”

#Mexico: A Rare Arrest

US papers are reporting the arrest of a suspect in the killing of Bradley Will, an American activist and videojournalist who was shot while filming anti-government protests in Oxaca in 2006. 

 

#Mexico: Sending A Message

The caption of this photo, from an Atlantic article detailing the extent of the violence inflicted by Mexico's drug war, reads as follows:

"Soldiers put the final touches on a giant "No More Weapons" billboard composed of crushed firearms, placed near the U.S. border in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, on February 17, 2012. President Felipe Calderon unveiled the billboard Thursday and urged the United States to stop the flow of weapons into Mexico."

 

#Mexico: Updates On A Crisis

The UN is urging Mexico to do more to protect it's journalists. (excerpt): "The panel asked that Mexico go ahead with implementing the Law for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists, a bill that would strengthen prosecution for attacks on media workers. The panel does not expect the bill to solve the issue, but does believe it to be a step in the right direction. Human rights defenders in Mexico desperately need the State’s effective protection now,” said Margaret Sekaggya, the UN Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders. “They continue to suffer killings, attacks, harassment, threats, stigmatization and other serious human rights violations. 7 news media employees have been killed in Veracruz state alone in the last 18 months, 4 being killed within the last last two weeks. According to the National Commission for Human Rights, 80 journalists or media workers have been killed in Mexico since 2000, 14 have gone missing."

The Knight Center has organized much needed webinars and seminars offering safety strategies for Mexican journalists - over 100 have participated so far.  Tragically, the violent tactics of criminals has silenced another important news outlet in Mexico, as Nuevo Laredo's El Manana has publicly declared it would no longer report on the drug war. 

According to this article from the Dallas News, Mexican citizens look to the U.S. to take a stronger role in combating the violence that plagues their country.  It is the opinion of many familiar with the drug war that the US could start by doing more to stop the flow of guns across the border, and the demand for drugs coming in.

 

#Conflict Coverage: Gear Lists & Shifting Strategies

J.C. Sterns is compiling an awesome Storify post in which he's asked journos to document what their standard load-out of gear is when reporting from conflict zones (it's fairly #occupy and protest specific).

Last week in the UK, KTMProject attended the Frontline Club initiative to further safety and security practices for journalists working in hostile environments.  Some key points, perhaps the key point: local journalists who are investigating crime, corruption and civil rights abuses are the most targeted, most likely to be murdered and most at risk.  For them, the slogan 'no story is worth a life' has little meaning: they are risking their lives daily in order to practice free speach and get news out to the world that would otherwise be squelched.  A longer summary of observations and thoughts from the workshop will be posted at a later date.

The Columbia Journalism school has launched a class specifically dealing with safety in crisis. Which ties handliy to Frank Smyth's blog post asking if j-school grad's are really prepared to immediately jump into conflict zone reporting.

There are no easy answers.  The burden of care goes hand in hand with the assumption of risk taken by each respective journalist as they choose to take on a story that might put them in danger.  Using tools like Storify helps to further a dialog among journalists on safe practices, encouraging the sharing of experiences as related to the gear carried.  Kudos to Mr. Sterns for taking the initiative to put this together.

#Mexico: El Manana Gives In To Brutal Pressures

The Nuevo Laredo paper El Manana has taken the drastic step of publicly declaring that they have ceased to cover the drug war after numerous attacks on their reporters and on their offices.  Wikipedia lists some of the attrocities leading to this decision (excerpt):

"On 19 March 2004, the journalist Roberto Mora García was stabbed 29 times outside his home in Nuevo Laredo.^[2] On 6 February 2006, two armed men broke into the offices of El Mañana and detonated a grenade.^[3] They also shot the outside walls of the installation with AK-47s and AR-15s before fleeing the scene.^[3] According to La Jornada, the armed men shot the installation more than 100 times, injuring Jaime Orozco Tey, a journalist.^[4] On 30 July 2010, a group of armed men in a vehicle threw a grenade at the offices of Televisa in Nuevo Laredo, damaging two vehicles.^[5] On 26 September 2011, Elizabeth Macias-Castro, an editor of la Primera Hora newspaper, was decapitated; a note was left behind by Los Zetas, claiming responsibility for the killing.^[6] A group of armed men attacked the offices of El Mañana newspaper in Nuevo Laredo at around 23:00 hours on 11 May 2012.^[7] The Mexican authorities stated that no one was injured in the 5-minute shootout, but the offices and some vehicles were damaged when bullets impacted from the outside.^[8] When the employees of El Mañana heard the detonations, they threw themselves on the floor, while others suffered nervous breakdowns.^[9] Some witnesses mentioned that they heard grenade explosions during the attack. In addition, a message was reportedly left behind by the perpetrators.^[10]"

Staying Safe: CPJ's Guide To Journalist Security

 

Along with this introductory video, CPJ has launched a Security Blog and produced this updated, comprehensive guidebook for all journalists.  It covers how to prepare and protect when working on crime, war, social unrest, natural and manmade disasters as well as giving insight into protecting data in the digital age.  It is a must read for all journalists, and an insightful read for anyone who cares about the news and how it is reported. 

#Mexico: Impunity Reigns, Body Count Rises

On World Press Freedom Day, the bodies of three photojournalists were discovered in Veracruz, days after the murder of reporter Regina Martinez.  PEN Intl. has released this statement (translated from Spanish):

Attention media, civic and government organizations:

Before the murder of reporter Regina Martinez and William Moon and Gabriel photojournalists Huge Veracruz this week in the PEN club in Mexico to call again to stop the War against journalists in Mexico.

Despite its constitutional and international obligations, Mexico has continued to violate human rights of journalists and writers. The rights violated include the right to life and the right not to be tortured, to work and freedom of expression.

The crimes committed against journalists are not properly investigated and the authorities have failed to effectively investigate and punish at least 90% of cases. Despite its name, the Special Prosecutor for Attention to Crimes Committed Against Freedom of Expression has no jurisdiction to investigate crimes or charges, or combat-related cases related to drug trafficking organizations.

There is a network of laws that limit the expression and reporting of acts of states in the country corrupción.Catorce maintain laws that criminalize speech. The rules of civil defamation (or moral harm) are used to harass journalists who reveal corruption. The regulatory framework hinders favoring diversity of media concentration.

THE SITUATION IS URGENT AND REQUIRES AN IMMEDIATE RESPONSE. THE MEXICAN GOVERNMENT MUST:

1. Ensure that the call mechanism to protect and prevent attacks on journalists to be transparent and accessible, which has staff with technical knowledge and resources, and can adopt and implement binding decisions on protection.

2. Ensure expeditious investigations and prosecutions, all solid and impartial perpetrator, carried out at the federal level, and allocate the necessary resources for this.

3. Reforming the rules and policies to ensure that journalists and media with different orientation can operate without threat of legal sanction.

4. Reforming the rules to ensure that all crimes allegedly committed by members of the security forces are investigated and prosecuted by civilian authorities.

THE GOVERNMENT OF CANADA, THE UNITED STATES AND THE EUROPEAN UNION SHOULD:

5. Place this in the foreign policy agenda, insisting that are implemented the above recommendations.

6. Determine the future support in combating narcotics to the government to take effective actions to address genuine and serious human rights violations committed against journalists.

7. Tackling drug use in their own countries and to combat international trafficking in narcotics and weapons.

  

KTMProject has created this video to elaborate on the situation in Mexico, which sadly grows more violent by the day.

KTM - Mexico: State of Impunity from KTM Project on Vimeo.

 

 

#WPFD: KTMProject & Others Commemorate The Silenced

Today is World Press Freedom Day, marked by numerous events around the globe and around the web.  But a few examples linked here:

The Guardian opens a photo exhibit in London to honor those journalists fallen in Mexico.  The US State Dept. has this announcement.  UNESCO commemorates the fallen.  CPJ recently published a comprehensive guide to help protect reporters in the field. 

On May 8th, KTM Project will be attending a Frontline Club workshop on improving journalist safety protocols; "Frontline Club founder and former member of Frontline TV, Vaughan Smith, says the aim of the meeting - to be held on Tuesday 8 May - is to get different parts of the industry to come together and talk about safety in the field."

KTM - In Brief: Impunity from KTM Project on Vimeo.

Together, we can work to raise awareness throughout the journalism community and the news audience to end impunity, create stronger safety guidelines and protect the press.