The American Society of News Editors (ASNE) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) have announced a joint summit focusing on violence against journalists working along the U.S.-Mexican border.
The meeting of Mexican and U.S. editors, press freedom monitors and government officials will be held Dec. 5-6, 2010, at the University of Texas-El Paso. The keynote speaker for the event is Alejandro Junco de la Vega, chairman and chief executive officer of Mexico’s Grupo Reforma.
In addition to defending and promoting the right to information in the face of organized crime, during the summit participants also will analyze what steps the Mexican government is taking to fight violence against journalists, as well as the challenges of impunity and drug trafficking, reported El Diario de El Paso.
At least 30 journalists have been killed or disappeared in Mexico in the past four years, and 11 have been killed this year alone, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
See this Knight Center map for more information about violence against journalists in Mexico.
News of the summit comes just as another Mexican reporter, Carlos Alberto Guajardo of Expreso newspaper, was killed on Friday, Nov. 5. And on Monday, at the annual IAPA conference, Mexican President Felipe Calderon said that organized crime is the biggest threat to freedom of the press in Mexico.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
