Mexico -- It's more dangerous than you think...for journalists
Finally some one is paying attention to the growing power of the drug cartels in Mexico.
Several years back the SPJ joined with other journalism groups around the world to raise concerns about the number of journalists being killed or intimidated by organized crime forces along the U.S.-Mexican border.
- In the past 8 years -- as the IFJ statment below points out -- 24 journalists have been killed.
- Former IJC co-chair Roberty Buckman reported a couple of years ago on the intimidation of border journalists.
- Newspaper buildings were attacked with bombs and drive by shootings.
- The families of journalists along the border -- even those who just handled the police blotter beat -- were threatened.
Mexico is the most dangerous place for journalists in this hemisphere.
The SPJ once stood with the IAPA, the IFJ and other groups in not only offering words of encouragement to our colleagues in Mexico but we also called on the U.S. government to do more to pressure Mexico to bring the criminals to trial.
To their credit, the Mexican govenrment has been waging a large-scale war against the drug lords.
The latest victim is the national leader of that battle.
Edgar Eusebio Millan Gomez was killed outside his home in Mexico City May 7.
The shooting clearly marks a new phase in the war against the drug lords of Mexico. A war that has been going on for years but whose victims were hundreds of unnamed people along the border and a couple dozen reporters. Too bad no one bothered to give these people's deaths front page coverage.
The Washington Post and CNN stories on the Gomez shooting talked about the growing problem and the efforts to get the druggies under control. Yet nowhere in their stories was even a mention that the main reason we know so much about what the drug barons of Mexico are doing is because of the work of brave journalists -- some of whom were killed becuase of that work.
Would it have been so hard to mention that 24 journalists were killed and anothuer 8 reporters are missing because of the drug lords?
Hell, I will bet damn few American journalists -- except for a handful -- know how dangerous Mexico is for our profession.
Maybe we can't get folks in our profession to understand the links between Main Street and the rest of the world thanks to the bean counter mentality of local, local, local. But local now includes the world.
Does anyone really think the drugs these guys in Mexco process are being sold to Mexican in Mexico?
We owe a great debt to the brave journalists in Mexico who are risking their lives to expose the criminal society taking hold along our border. We also owe a debt to the Mexican government that is trying to get rid of this vermin.
Too bad it takes the dramatic shooting of a prominent figure to finally get the story up front.
How much you want to bet there will be little or no follow up in the American media?
Dan Kubiske
Statement by the International Federation of Journalists
May 08, 2008
IFJ and FEPALC Call for Investigation into Disappearance of Mexican Journalist
The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) and its regional organization, FEPALC, today called on Mexican authorities to launch a full investigation into the disappearance of Jorge Carrasco Taracena, a journalist and reporter working for the television channel Televisa.
Carrasco Taracena was last seen on April 30, according to Televisa. He usually covered crime, police news and other local issues for the channel during the nighttime and early morning hours.
"Carrasco Taracena joins a list of at least 24 other dead and eight missing journalists in Mexico in the last eight years," said Gregorio Salazar, Director of the IFJ Latin America Office, "a country which, in this sense, has shown the bleakest outlook for journalism on our continent."
Recently an international joint mission of press freedom organizations and journalists visited Mexico to investigate the challenges journalists face as they are increasingly the victims of organized crime, corruption and official failure to punish their murderers. Journalists there also need more support from professional groups, other media and civil society to fight against the impunity that those responsible for attacks on their colleagues enjoy.
"The grave fears for what has happened to Jorge Carrasco," said Manuel Méndez, president of FEPALC and a member of the Mexico mission, "come in a country, where the number of killed and missing journalists is not only the greatest in Latin America but also raises questions about the lack of alarm that official institutions are showing."
The IFJ and FEPALC said they will not cease in their efforts until they can reverse the trend that has made Mexico one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in the world.
For more information contact the IFJ at + 32 2 235 2207
The IFJ represents overs 600.000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide