Blog del Narco, a website known for publishing uncensored images and videos of violence in Mexico, reported via Twitter and its new site, MilCincuenta.com, that users are having difficulty viewing the page since Oct. 24, especially those using Google Chrome.
A commission formed by the Mexican Chamber of Deputies approved the federal government to investigate crimes against journalists with the cases to be tried in local courts, reported the newspaper El Universal.
Mexican journalist Adela Navarro Bello has been named one of winners of the International Women’s Media Foundation’s 2011 Courage in Journalism Awards. The awards, which honor women journalists who risk their lives reporting on violence in their countries, will be presented Thursday, Oct. 27, at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York, according to IWMF. The award winners also were recognized in Los Angeles on Monday, Oct. 24.
In the northern Mexican state of Durango, four strangers broke into a journalist's home the night of Oct. 14 while she and her mother were asleep, reported the Press and Society Institute (IPYS in Spanish). The intruders locked the two women in a room, and after spending several hours in the house, they stole the journalist's computer, car, and credentials, along with personal photos, underwear and perfume, IPYS said.
Rapporteurs for freedom of expression from the United Nations and Organization of American States denounced the Mexican state's slow response to prosecute those that commit crimes against journalists. In the presentation of the report, "Freedom of Expression in Mexico," both organizations noted that violence against journalists in the country was the worst in the continent and the fifth overall in the world, reported EFE.
A new public initiative allows Mexicans to use social media and the Internet to report discriminatory content and messages in news media and advertising, according to a press release by the Human Rights Commission (CHDF in Spanish).
The Federal Commission of Telecommunications (Cofetel), the organization responsible for regulating the media in Mexico, is considering a proposal to open up the air waves and offer more digital television broadcasting licenses, according to a report from the newspaper El Universal.
Police detained two suspects for the killing of two reporters in Mexico City, reported the newspaper El Universal. The reporters, Marcela Yarce and Rocío González Trápaga, were killed in an abandoned property on the evening of Sept. 1, on their way to exchange one million Mexican pesos (more than U.S. $72,000) into U.S. dollars, reported the EFE news agency.
For suffering through attacks and threats for covering drug trafficking and organized crime, Mexican journalist Javier Arturo Valdez Cárdenas was named one of the winners of the Committee to Protect Journalists' 2011 International Press Freedom Awards.
Journalists, academics and telecommunication experts joined to form "Ya Basta de los Abusos de Televisa" (Enough already with Televisa's abuses), dedicated to denouncing media campaigns and manipulation of information of Mexican television and multimedia giant Televisa.
The documentary "Presumed Guilty," which details the shortcomings of the Mexican judicial system, won an Emmy for best investigative journalism, reported CNN México.
International organizations and the French government condemned the killing of Mexican journalist María Elizabeth Macías.