In the Mexican state of Veracruz, one of the 10 most-dangerous places in the world to practice journalism, fear is surging that more journalists are going to be killed. According to the digital newspaper El Arsenal, a new list is circulating with the names of journalists slated to be killed in coming days, and the warning comes from an official in the state prosecutor's office.
Succumbing to pressure from the Mexican student movement “Yo Soy 132,”, or "I am 132," the president of the TV station Televisa, Emilio Azcárraga, agreed to nationally broadcast the next presidential debate, reported Noticias MVS. Then, Ricardo Salinas Pliego, president of the second largest TV station, TV Azteca, announced that it, too, would nationally televise the debate, according to El Informador.
Heading towards the Mexican presidential elections on July 1, voting surveys are done on Facebook; candidates have cell phone 'apps' and YouTube channels, and citizen journalists are the protagonists of new digital media that have refreshed electoral coverage to meet the demands of a younger and more informed public. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas interviewed the directors of Mexican digital and independent media about this tendency.
Miguel Ángel López Solana, son of the Mexican columnist brutally killed in the state of Veracruz along with his family in June 2011, described to participants of the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas the ordeals he faced to flee Mexico because of fear that his life was in jeopardy.
The Mexican newspaper Reforma said that the house of editor Lázaro Ríos Cavazos was raided on the night of Tuesday, May 22, according to the Wednesday's newspaper edition.
After the killing of his family and five of his colleagues, Mexican reporter and photographer Miguel Ángel López Solana urged journalistic organizations to protect journalists in the state of Veracruz on Tuesday, May 22, during the 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, themed Security and Protection for Journalists and organized by the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas and the Open Society Foundations.
On the second day of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, a panel of experts spoke on the role of state protection mechanisms for journalists in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.
“I need a gun,” is what a journalist requested as a safety measure to work in Veracruz, one of the most dangerous places for the Mexican press. After the request, Daniela Pastrana, of the Mexican organizationJournalists on Foot (Periodistas a Pie) responded to that journalist that a fire arm was not the solution, but her colleague from Veracruz insisted: “I don't want the gun to defend myself, but to make sure they don't catch me alive." The reporter's response came after five Mexican journalists were found dead with signs of torture in the last 30 days.
One day after reporter Marcos Ávila was kidnapped by three armed men in the Mexican state of Sonora, authorities found the journalist's body strangled and with signs of torture. A message that has been attributed to drug-traffickers was found next to the body, reported the newspaper El Universal on the afternoon of Friday, May 18.
Mexican authorities of the state of Sonora in northeastern Mexico, confirmed the kidnapping of a police beat journalist who covers local security and justice issues, on Thursday, May 17, reported the Associated Press.
The Mexican radio station Grupo Fórmula sent a letter to the owner of the newspaper Reforma to clarify the sponsorship payments made by presidential candidate and former governor of the state of Mexico, Enrique Peña Nieto, reported the same radio station.
For the second time in one week, an armed group opened fire against a Mexican newspaper's headquarters in the state of Tamaulipas that is commonly harassed by organized crime. The attack happened the night of Friday, May 11, against the newspaper El Mañana of Nuevo Laredo, a city on the Texas border, according to Proceso. Previously, on May 7, another similar attack against the newspaper Hora Cero in the city of Reynosa was reported.