The “barrage” of censorship and pressure to which Mexican journalists have been exposed in recent years reminds reporter Alexandra Xanic of the 1990s. The dependence of the media on official advertising, reductions in newsrooms and the search by media outlets to “fill spaces,” mean that investigative journalism is increasingly forgotten, and the little that is done fails to have the impact it should.
Journalist Miroslava Breach Velducea, 54, was killed on the morning of March 23 after receiving at least four shots to the head. The journalist was leaving her home in the capital city of Chihuahua state and getting into her vehicle when a group of strangers approached her and began shooting, according to newspaper Norte in Ciudad Juárez.
Another journalist has been killed in Veracruz, Mexico.
Nevertheless, his comedy, which is based on commentary of news, culture and politics, is consumed by hundreds of thousands of Latin Americans.
Reporters Without Borders (RSF for its acronym in French) recently published the report "Censorship and surveillance of journalists: an unscrupulous business,” in which it denounces several cases of digital surveillance of journalists by both democratic and authoritarian governments around the world.
The day before the International Symposium on Online Journalism (ISOJ) begins, leading women journalists from Mexico and Texas will meet to discuss transparency, credibility and other journalistic values during an era of heightened political divisiveness in both countries. Their bilingual conversation will apply those themes to digital strategy, social media and political coverage of controversial issues including migration and violent crime.
A Mexican police reporter who reported having received threats from organized crime was killed in the state of Guerrero on March 2.
After a weeklong hearing, a court in Oaxaca found former police commander Jorge Armando Santiago Martínez guilty of the 2016 murder of journalist Marcos Hernández Bautista, according to a March 4 release from the Oaxaca Attorney General. He was sentenced to 30 years in prison and ordered to pay 178,000 pesos in damages (about $9,077). A motive was not mentioned.
Mexican journalist and researcher Sergio Aguayo received the first of two psychological evaluations ordered by the judge in a case against him, after being sued by the former governor of the state of Coahuila de Zaragoza, Humberto Moreira.
With the goal of preventing misinformation, Jaime Rodríguez Calderón, Mexican governor of the northern state of Nuevo León, said he would ask local lawmakers for a law that would force journalists to reveal their sources, according to Proceso.
In the 10 years of the violent Drug War in Mexico, journalists have rarely had the time to reflect on how the violence affects both them and the people around them.
Recent media coverage of a rare school shooting in Mexico has generated a large debate between the media, readers and the State, concerning the ethics of journalistic publication of reports with violent images.