The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2010

14 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 1 0 coming anytime soon: “Justice in Venezuela has been kidnapped by the executive.” Remarkably, independent polls con- ducted by the Pew Foundation and other organizations confirm that Venezuelans still hold positive views of America. But unfortunately, attempts to restrict freedom of expression con- tinue to grow. Mexico: A Bad Place to Be a Journalist Similar threats are evident in Bo- livia, Argentina and Nicaragua, among other places. But the Latin American country currently facing the gravest challenge to free expression is Mexico, where a normally vibrant press must walk on eggshells due to the drug car- tels’ violent response to President Fe- lipe Calderon’s ongoing crackdown against them. The nongovernmental organization Reporters Without Bor- ders recently labeled the country as the most dangerous in the hemisphere in which to practice journalism. In its 2009 report the group noted: “The National Human Rights Com- mission has recorded 46 killings of jour- nalists since 2000, and a further eight have disappeared since 2003, either be- cause of their work or, most often, for an unknown motive. The existence of the drug cartels goes a long way to ex- plain this terrible toll.” Threats to reporters just for cover- ing a news story are growing at alarm- ing rates, particularly along the U.S.-Mexican border. (In general, re- gional and local media face much greater risks than those in the capital or other major metropolitan areas.) One Mexican organization, the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics, has doc- umented 128 assaults on reporters and editors. Unlike threats against police or politicians, there is little price to pay for intimidating reporters. In a May pub- lication, “Press Freedom in an Envi- ronment of Impunity,” the Woodrow Wilson Center presented research that indicates the failure to prosecute has resulted in an “89-percent level of im- punity in murder cases against re- porters.” The Inter-American Press Associa- tion agrees: “Impunity continues to be the common denominator in most of these attacks.” It adds: “The climate of violence has fostered a dangerous pat- tern of self-censorship in the media when it comes to investigating and re- porting on issues related to organized crime.” This self-censorship plays out in dif- ferent ways throughout the country. In the scarred state of Sinaloa, for exam- ple, grenades are increasingly being used against newspapers, as happened in November 2008 to the leading daily newspaper, El Debate . The midnight attack did not injure anyone but caused considerable damage to the building. Similar grenade attacks occurred in Monterrey in January 2009 against Televisa; in September 2009, again in Sinaloa, at the weekly newspaper Rio Doce; and, most recently, against Tele- visa in Nayarit in May 2010. No one was hurt in these attacks, but the mes- sage rings loud and clear — stop cov- ering narcotics trafficking. Despite hopes of a reprieve, 2010 started off badly inMexico. In January, local reporter Jose Luis Romera was kidnapped and shot to death; a few days later, the corpse of a second re- porter, Valentin Valdes Espinosa, was found with a “narco-message” warning others not to probe drug trafficking. As of May, there have been five confirmed deaths of journalists, and several others are missing. Meanwhile, clashes over jurisdiction between federal and state authorities have stonewalled some in- vestigations. In response, beat reporters have begun using local journalism organiza- tions to verify information via phone before they travel to a location, carry- ing extra cell phones and traveling in pairs for added security. In some in- stances, foreign journalists are briefed so they can report the stories for an in- ternational audience, basing them on the contacts of local reporters who are afraid or unable to publish. The situa- tion has deteriorated in so many news- rooms that papers will often not run bylines with their reports for fear of reprisals. The fact that such attacks are not an abstraction was made painfully clear to the United States on March 13, when three members of the Consulate Ciu- dad Juarez community were murdered. Lesley Enriquez, Arthur Redelfs and Jorge Salcido were gunned down in two separate incidents, victims of the violence affecting families along the border. The White House, Secretary of State Hillary RodhamClinton and U.S. Ambassador to Mexico Carlos Pascual all vowed that such lethal acts would not stand, and asserted a shared re- sponsibility to stop such brutality. To S P E A K I N G O U T An informed populace makes for a stronger democracy and stronger partners in the region.