Mexican journalists urgently need to make people understand and value the impact of their work, so it’s society itself demanding safe conditions to practice journalism, Katherine Corcoran — whose book "In the Mouth of the Wolf," about the 2012 murder of Mexican journalist Regina Martinez will be launched in October — told LJR.
With the death of Fredid Román, 15 journalists have been murdered in Mexico so far in 2022. While organizations such as the UN, CPJ and IAPA condemn the crimes, López Obrador's government denies the climate of violence against the press. The government even appears to be the main source of aggressions, according to a report by Article 19.
What began as a scuffle between rival criminal groups ended in attacks targeting the population that resulted in the deaths of four employees of the MegaRadio radio group. The killings, considered by organizations as a form of social destabilization, caused the radio station to temporarily cease transmissions.
Twenty-two journalists were murdered in Latin American countries between January and June 2022. Data are from the Press Emblem Campaign (PEC). The number is higher than the total number of journalists killed in countries in the region last year: 17. It is also higher than journalists killed in coverage of the war in Ukraine: 16 in the same period.
LatAm Journalism Review (LJR) heard from friends, co-workers and family of Brazilian journalist Tim Lopes, murdered on June 2, 2002. The case provoked profound changes in news companies, with the implementation of security measures and the reduction of coverage in at-risk areas. However, Brazilian journalists feel as vulnerable now, if not more so, than they did 20 years ago.
Family members, colleagues and national and international organizations demand justice and guarantees for a journalism free of violence in Mexico, after the murders of journalists Yesenia Mollinedo and Johana García on May 9, and of columnist Luis Enrique Ramírez, on May 5, all in the same month.
Brazilian documentary 'Boca Fechada' (Gagged) starts from the stories of three journalists killed by gunmen. The film shows the vulnerability of journalists with a critical voice in small towns in the interior of the country.
Journalist Juan Carlos Muñiz was murdered in Zacatecas on March 4. Organizations such as RSF, Article 19 and the IAPA, as well as journalists from Mexico and abroad, called for Mexican authorities to stop the violence against journalists.
The journalists who were victims of the wave of violence at the beginning of 2022 have common denominators such as being independent or working on their own native digital projects on local issues of politics, insecurity and corruption.
So far in February, Mexico has recorded an attempted assassination of a journalist, two beaten photojournalists and the murder of the son of a well-known journalist from Tijuana, in addition to verbal attacks and disqualifications to members of the press from the Presidency.