Media directors and journalists say they are skeptical of the the government’s newly announced protective measures against attacks from organized crime, EFE reports.
In a meeting with representatives of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), Mexico's President Felipe Calderón vowed to put in place by October a plan to protect journalists, similar to one in Colombia, and to launch legal reforms that would make killings of journalists a federal crime, reported the Associated Press and IAPA.
"In no way should anyone promote a truce or negotiate with criminals who are precisely the ones causing anxiety for the public, kidnapping, extorting and killing." With these words, Alejandro Poire, security spokesman for President Felipe Calderon, criticized the editorial in El Diario de Juárez in which the newspaper asked for a truce with organized crime after the killing of one of its photographers, reported the Associated Press and BBC.
After one of its photographers was killed by gunmen Thursday, Sept. 16, the Mexican newspaper Diario de Juárez, in an unprecedented move, published an extensive editorial on Sunday, Sept. 19, asking for a truce with drug cartels that would end the violence and, above all, stop the attacks against journalists in Mexico, reported CNN and the Associated Press. Newspaper editors also clarified that the call for peace does not mean the newspaper is giving up its journalistic work.
A group of renowned investigative journalists from throughout Latin America and the Caribbean, who had gathered for the 8th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, issued a declaration condemning the violence against journalists that is threatening freedom of expression from Mexico to the Southern Cone.
Authorities warned journalist Esteban Rosario that there was a plot against his life, Diario Libre reports. Several alleged killers would have received $25,000 for the reporters’ death.
News that a 21-year-old photography intern was shot to death Thursday in Ciudad Juárez, and that his 18-year-old colleague was wounded, increased the sense of urgency for members of 40 journalist training and safety organizations who gathered in Austin, Texas, Friday and Saturday (Sept. 17–18) for the 8th Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas. The annual gathering focuses this year on the coverage of drug trafficking and organized crime in Latin America and the Caribbean.
A photographer from the newspaper El Diario de Juárez was shot to death Thursday, Sept. 16, in a mall parking lot in Ciudad Juarez, ground zero for the drug trafficking violence in Mexico and just along the border with the United States, according to CNN. Another photographer, an intern at the newspaper, was seriously injured in the shoooting, according to the Associated Press.
Luis Galdámez, a reporter for Radio Globo and TV Globo, was attacked by three shooters in front of his house in the capital city of Tegucigalpa, La Tribuna reports. The journalist used his own gun to fight off the attackers.
Alejandro Hernández Pacheco, a cameraman for Televisa who was kidnapped by alleged drug traffickers in July, is in the U.S. seeking asylum for himself, his wife, and his two kids, CNN reports.
A female reporter for Mexico's TV Azteca was harassed by football players and a coach during the New York Jets' practice on Saturday, Sept. 11, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Similar to the United States' recent denial of a visa for television journalist Hollman Morris to come to Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, now a second Colombian journalist, Claudia Duque, has had her visa request rejected, according to journalism.co.uk.