Mexico’s Imperiled Journalists
When you scan Reporters Without Borders’s Press Freedom Index—as I happened to late yesterday, on World Press Freedom Day—the results are mostly expected: Eritrea and North Korea are the least free; Finland and Norway are the most. But seeing Mexico fall so low—number 149 of 179 countries—is not only shocking but must be one of the great tragedies for media in the last decade.
Mexico’s press is incredibly robust, critical, and investigative. The country’s proud literary tradition is infused with the reportage of news—the writing, reporting and editing are superb. Newspapers are among the best in Latin America, as are magazines such as Nexos and Proceso, which one could argue offer far more comprehensive news analysis that most US news sources.
So the lack of freedom that has pushed Mexico so low boils down to one word: safety. Journalists are a target for many of the actors in the country’s drug war who want to literally kill the news about their operation.
Organized criminals have not taken kindly to their moves being investigated; three journalists were killed this week, likely for their work reporting on drug trafficking networks. Reporters investigating military and police links to organized crimes have also been killed or beaten. Threats are nearly ubiquitous for any journalists on the drug beat