The escalation of violence and drug cartel influence in Mexico means that for foreign correspondents, reporting in Mexico is no different than covering a war, said Tracy Wilkinson, Mexico City bureau chief for the Los Angeles Times. No one can be trusted, and "Baghdad rules" apply, she said. Get in, report, and get out.
With the violence unleashed by drug cartels profoundly impacting Mexico, both foreign and local journalists are trying to figure out how to cover a war of a different kind.
The International Women’s Media Foundation honored the courage of Colombian Claudia Duque and the lifetime achievement of Mexican Alma Guillermoprieto, along with the work of two newswomen from Tibet and Tanzania, the Canadian Press reports.
Several press freedom organizations have accused the Chiapas state government of violating human rights and freedom of expression in their violent shutdown of the Proletaria community radio station on Oct. 12. The station is run mainly by neighborhood youths in the city of Tuxtla Gutierrez, Mexico's Center for Social Communication (CENCOS) Reports (via IFEX).
During President Felipe Calderón’s trip to the violent border city across from El Paso, Texas, a group of journalists from Ciudad Juárez called on the president to solve the killings of their colleagues, EFE and the International Press Institute report.
Through its You Tube channel, the Inter American Press Association has launched a series of videos highlighting its international campaign to counter violence against the press in countries such as Mexico, Honduras, and Colombia.
With the violence unleashed by drug cartels profoundly impacting Mexico, both foreign and local journalists are trying to figure out how to cover a war of a different kind, according to a panel presented in front of more than 200 people at the University of Texas at Austin on Thursday, Oct. 7.
The National Commission for Human Rights (CNDH) published a guide with measures for protecting journalists at risk and countering the violence against the press, reported EFE and La Jornada.
Peruvian writer and failed presidential candidate Mario Vargas Llosa has won the 2010 Nobel Prize for Literature for his "cartography of structures of power and his trenchant images of the individuals' resistance, revolt and defeat," reported the Christian Science Monitor and Los Angeles Times.
Luz del Carmen Sosa Carrizosa and Sandra Rodríguez of the newspaper Diario de Juárez won the "Reporteros del Mundo" prize awarded by the Spanish newspaper El Mundo in recognition of their “extraordinary valor” in covering drug trafficking and the killing of women in Ciudad Juárez, Mexico.
Giant Mexican media company Televisa is making in-roads in the U.S. television market, investing $1.2 billion in debt-ridden Univision Communications Inc., according to Bloomberg. The initial investment gives Televisa a 5 percent stake in Univision, growing to as much as 40 percent eventually.
Attackers armed with assault rifles opened fire on the headquarters of El Debate in the city of Mazatlán, Sinaloa, at dawn Sunday, Oct. 3, La Jornada reports. No injuries occurred. The building’s façade was shot at least 17 times, Milenio adds.