Drug-related violence in Mexico has not only left more than 28,000 dead since 2006, it has also plunged the local press into a crisis, one that has laid bare the chronic weaknesses of Mexican journalism.
According to Milenio’s León Krauze, the abduction of four journalists in Durango state last week by suspected drug traffickers was a watershed moment that exposed the disunity among media outlets and the daily struggle for journalists who cover drugs and corruption. The kidnapping also showed the increasing power of drug cartels, which includes influence over the authorities, the local press, and even the national media.
The happy ending to the kidnapping – two of the journalists were freed and the two others were rescued by the police – is a rare occurrence in Mexico. Since President Felipe Calderón declared his war on drugs in December 2006, Human Rights Watch figures show that 38 journalists have disappeared or been killed, 10 of those in 2010 alone.
Krauze writes that Mexican journalism is “going through a time of deep crisis” and the drug trafficking threat makes that crisis worse. He stresses that the situation “requires an immediate and forceful reaction” that is as definitive as Colombia’s 1999 “Discretion Agreement,” a document signed by more than 32 media directors that included standards for improved quality and responsibility in covering violence and conflict.
El Economista’s Rubén Aguilar, the former spokesman for ex-president Vicente Fox, called on the media to establish a common protocol to jointly address the issue and to develop a shared code of ethics for news coverage of organized crime. “It may also be the time for media professionals…to found a National Journalism Union, with state chapters, that governs the profession and defends its practice,” he says.
The Foundation for Freedom of Expression has said that “this is the time to decide” and that without unity, media outlets and journalists will continue to be “vulnerable to attacks.” The Organization of American States' freedom of expression monitor has also called on the Mexican government to make crimes against media workers federal offenses and enact more measures to protect the lives and integrity of threatened journalists.
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.
