By Alejandro Martínez
Freedom House and the International Center for Journalists have launched a new crowd-sourced map to track attacks against journalists, social media users and bloggers who report crime and corruption in Mexico.
“We need a safe way to report these attacks and to show the effect of violence on freedom of expression in Mexico,” said Jorge Luis Sierra, the Knight International Journalism Fellow coordinating the project.
In a blog post at the International Journalists' Network, Sierra said the map "Periodistas en Riesgo" ("Journalists at Risk") is the first digital crowdsourcing platform related to freedom of expression issues. It will allow people to submit reports anonymously. Editors will verify the information before updating the map, Sierra said.
The map, currently on its Beta version, already contains information on the most serious attacks registered between 2005 and 2012, and every aggression since Dec. 1, 2012, when the new administration of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto began.
As of April 30 the map had registered 46 attacks, including physical, judicial, psychological and digital attacks.
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.
