As part of the campaign ‘Journalism at Risk’ (‘Periodismo en Riesgo’), the Free Press Foundation (FLIP for its acronym in Spanish) has launched the J-Pro project, which seeks to explain and evaluate the policies established by the governments of Colombia and Mexico for protection of journalists at risk.
Protection mechanisms of these countries recently have been under public scrutiny.
In the case of the Colombian mechanism, this month marks 15 years since it was implemented, but, according to organizations defending freedom of expression, it is at a “critical moment.” Although the mechanism made many advances in security for journalists, lack of funds and internal corruption scandals threaten its stability.
It was precisely because of this that the FLIP, the Colombian Federation of Journalists (Fecolper for its acronym in Spanish), the Colombian Association of Newspaper Editors and Media (Andiarios for its acronym in Spanish) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French) launched the campaign 'Journalism Risk’, which seeks to show that this is a critical time.
"It's a wiki of protection mechanisms that answers basic questions like what is the origin or how much does it cost," said Pedro Vaca, executive director of the FLIP and developer of the project, in conversation with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
However, the protection mechanism of Colombia is not the only program under scrutiny. The mechanism of the Mexican government has been strongly criticized and its effectiveness has been questioned because of the high levels of violence against journalists in that country. The July 31 murder of photojournalist Rubén Espinosa generated a wave of indignation and demands for the government to ensure the protection of journalists who are at risk for exercising their profession.
Espinosa had fled the state of Veracruz for Mexico City because of threats against him. It was in this city where he was killed. In recent days, more than 500 journalists, artists, defenders of freedom of the press and activists sent a letter to President Enrique Peña Nieto, demanding a thorough investigation into Espinosa’s murder and that of all journalists, but above all, an analysis of the protection mechanism.
"The idea [with the J-Pro project] is that international experts can contribute to the generation of knowledge on the subject," said Vaca. According to the FLIP press release, users of this platform "can make comments that will be taken into account by the FLIP".
Journalists, civil organizations, politicians and authorities in either country, or outside of them, can surf the platform which is divided into chapters for each country. These chapters include topics like violence against the press, legal framework for the protection of journalists, how the program works, what protective measures can be assigned and even testimonials from journalists working for the Colombian case.
In accordance with the project website, it is a work in progress. Information is available in Spanish and English.
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.
