Thousands demonstrated in the streets of Mexico’s biggest cities against the wave of drug trafficking violence that has left 35,000 dead since 2006. The protests were organized by writer and journalist Javier Sicilla, whose son was one of seven people killed this week in the city of Cuernavaca, Mileno and CDN report.
Mexican journalist Alejandro Suverza was arrested in the Mexico City airport, allegedly carrying $57,000 inside packs of gum and other items, El Universal reports.
Reforma, one of Mexico’s biggest newspapers and a pioneer in charging for online content, is studying ways to charge for its mobile content, a top executive revealed.
Journalists from violent Ciudad Juárez, Mexico, and from Managua, Nicaragua, report being attacked by police while performing their journalistic duties.
For the third time since September, a division of Grupo Reforma-owned newspaper El Norte was hit with a grenade in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, Vanguardia reports.
The Supreme Court rejected an appeal initiated by a group of 15 journalists and academics against a constitutional provision that bans private individuals from buying electoral ad space on radio and TV, Milenio reports.
Only hours after a TV host was killed in northern Mexico, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reported the disappearance of another journalist in Mexico, where in the last four years violence linked to drug trafficking has exploded.
In an unprecedented decision favoring transparency about the impact of drug trafficking, Mexico’s Federal Institute for Access to Information (IFAI) ordered the national intelligence service to furnish precise data on the number of people killed in clashes between authorities and organized crime groups, El Universal reports.
TV host José Luis Cerda of the Televisa network was found assassinated in the northern city of Monterrey—which in recent months has become the site of several attacks on media and aggression on the press by organized crime. He was kidnapped the day before by a group of armed men, Terra reports.
After the shutdown of two community radio stations in Mexico during the past two weeks, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters (AMARC) is calling on Mexican authorities to stop "criminalizing" community stations, reported Púlsar, the information agency for AMARC of Latin America and the Caribbean.
Nearly 50 Mexican media organizations signed an agreement Thursday about coverage of drug trafficking. The pact seeks to prevent excessive publication of violent images and stories and to guarantee the safety of journalists who expose themselves daily to the growing violence of organized crime, which has left more than 34,000 deaths in four years. See stories in English by the Associated Press and Reuters.
The killing of journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, editor general of Zeta weekly, was allegedly ordered by Javier Arellano Félix, then leader of the Tijuana Cartel, the gang that controls the drug trade between the Mexican border city of the same name and the United States, the Committee Protect Journalists (CPJ) reports.