Mexico has reached a double digit death toll for journalists for the second consecutive year. Not only has 2010 surpassed 2009 in reporter murders, but Mexico has tied with Pakistan for the dubious title of world’s deadliest country for journalists.

Different press freedom organizations register different death tolls. Switzerland’s Press Emblem Campaign documents 14, France’s Reporters Without Borders registers 7, 8, and 11 depending on the post, and the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists lists only 3.

Comparing notes with the laudable documentation conducted by Mexico’s Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), it seems the figure published by the Press Emblem Campaign is the most accurate. However, I switched out one of the deaths listed by PEC for another.

Continue Reading

A Mexican judge has sentenced Monterrey-based community radio activist, Dr. Hector Camero, to 2 years in prison for using the airwaves without a license. Many in Mexico’s small community radio world had hoped that the charges against the physician would be thrown out due to multiple irregularities in the case.

In the Wednesday ruling, the judge also imposed a fine of 15,000 pesos – more than US$1000 – and stripped Dr. Camero of his civil and political rights. The doctor is a key member of the “Tierra y Libertad” low power FM station based in the low-income but tightly-knit community of the same name. It’s located on the outskirts of the northern industrial city of Monterrey and is home to many factory workers.

Tierra y Libertad first applied for a radio license in 2002 and began broadcasting without a permit later that year.  In 2008, broadcast equipment was confiscated in an aggressive raid involving more than 100 police. Through the help of the Mexico chapter of the World Association of Community Broadcasters – or AMARC – the station finally secured a license last year.

Licensed community radio stations are extremely rare in Mexico. All licensed LPFMs here started out broadcasting without government permission.

According to AMARC Mexico, Dr. Camero’s case is the first of a community radio programmer receiving a prison sentence specifically for broadcasting without a license. The community radio association is calling on the Mexican government to establish criteria for the legal operation of LPFMs in line with international standards.

The official who opened the investigation into the massacre of 72 Central and South Americans in northern Mexico has been found dead. Mexican marines found the investigator’s body dumped along a highway in the northern border state of Tamaulipas. A second body encountered at the scene is thought to be that of a municipal police official linked to the same case. The state’s attorney general reported the two as missing late Thursday.

The investigator’s disappearance and death illustrates why many high-level crimes in Mexico go unpunished. Cartel-related violence in Tamaulipas also frequently goes unreported for fear of retaliation. Early this morning, a car bomb exploded outside of the Ciudad Victoria office of the national broadcaster, Televisa, which has been covering the massacre.

Testimony by the massacre’s sole survivor indicates the murdered migrants had been kidnapped en route to the US by organized criminals. An average of more than 1600 migrants are kidnapped in Mexico each month according to data published by the country’s National Human Rights Commission.

Originally aired on FSRN

HOST INTRO: Journalists held marches across Mexico over the weekend to call attention to a rising tide of violence against the media and to protest the impunity surrounding the cases of dozens of murdered reporters. Shannon Young files this report from Mexico City.

[dewplayer:http://www.fsrn.org/audio/download/7287/20100809sy.mp3]

(reading names)

The Mexico City march began by reading the names of the 64 press workers murdered in the past decade. Ten journalists have been killed so far this year, putting 2010 on target to be the deadliest year ever for Mexican reporters. Eleven others are officially considered “missing persons”.

A column of around 1000 journalists and supporters participated in the silent march to Mexico’s Interior Ministry. Reporters held smaller demonstrations in 11 other Mexican cities.

Continue Reading

Four journalists in the Lagunera region of northern Mexico have disappeared just days after the revelation of a major corruption story. According to a press release by the National Human Rights Commission, the missing journalists include a reporter from Multimedios, two cameramen from the Gómez Palacio Televisa affiliate who were “picked up” (or “levantado”) in broad daylight around noon on Monday the 26th. The fourth missing reporter works for the El Vespertino newspaper in Gómez Palacio and disappeared around 11pm or the same day.

This comes in the wake of a corruption scandal in which prison guards in Gómez Palacios, Durango allegedly released and armed convicts to carry out mass murder in Torreón, Chihuahua. The two sister cities are one metropolitan area separated by a river which marks the state line.

Federal police investigators dropped this bombshell in a weekend press conference after looking into the July 18th massacre of 17 people at a birthday in a hotel. Eighteen people were wounded in the same attack. This was the third such massacre this year thought to have been committed by inmates released from the state penitentiary in Gómez Palacios. Crime scene shell casings were traced to assault rifles used by guards at the prison.

The four missing journalists aren’t the only victims in the scandal’s immediate fall out. A prison guard has been killed and 8 human heads have been found around the city of Durango, capital of the state of the same name.