Mexican journalists create group against attacks

[VanW]

Thu Dec 10, 8:13 pm ET

MEXICO CITY – Mexican journalists have formed an advocacy group in response to attacks on reporters.

The group is called the Reporters' National Front in Defense of Freedom of Expression and was announced Thursday by journalists from several Mexico City and Puebla newspapers and two magazines.

It says it will create a system for journalists to report attacks and will work to defend reporters and offer them legal advice. It also plans publicity campaigns to promote appreciation for the work journalists do.

At least eight journalists have been killed in Mexico this year, according to the National Center for Social Communication. Several international media groups call Mexico the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20091211/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/lt_mexico_journalists


Mexico needs help. :(

[VanW]

1. More from LATimes:

Mexican journalists are fed up with what they say is government indifference to the dangers they face on the job.

A large contingent marched through Mexico City streets this week to protest and demand action. They handed a strongly worded letter to the attorney general’s office, complaining that dozens of cases involving murdered journalists have gone unsolved over the last decade, and urging the government do something about it.

The letter accused the government of "indifference and silence" and demanded a halt to the "impunity in the cases of aggression, disappearances and murders of journalists."

Mexican journalist groups maintain that 55 reporters and media workers have been killed in nine years. Other advocacy organizations, with stricter definitions of what a journalist is, or which look for a direct link between the journalist's work and his or her murder, list a smaller number.

By all accounts, Mexico remains the most deadly country in Latin America for journalists, and one of the most deadly in the world. Virtually none of the cases has been solved -- something which Mexican journalists say increases the likelihood that more will be killed.

-- Tracy Wilkinson in Mexico City

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/laplaza/2009/12/mexico-city-journalists-murdered-killed-indifference-impunity-none-solved.html

[VanW]

2. photo from protest:

Photo: Journalists march through Mexico City. The banner calls for stopping crime and aggressive behavior against journalists. Credit: Mike O'Connor / For the Times