Summary:
In hopes of solving the many problems in Mexico for citizens, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, Amlo for short, was elected on December 1, 2018. A very important issue he pushed to fix if was the life-threatening dangers that local journalists faced while in Mexico. Since Amlo has taken office, at least five journalists have been murdered. Because of the deaths, many believe that murder rates for human rights activists and journalists have increased.
Since 2000, almost 150 journalists have been killed in Mexico
Rafael Murúa, murdered on January 20, 2019 was one of these victims. Despite being under a government protection programme for people like him, he still wasn't safe from the dangers of his work. His relatives say that by the time of his disappearance, after 7 years of being a part of the programme, the proper security measures still weren't in place at his home.
A grave site to remember Rafael Murúa
On January 2, 2015, journalist and activist Moisés Sánchez Cerezo was kidnapped from his home and murdered. He was a writer for a newspaper named La Unión: La Voz de Medellín and often reported on the irregularities of his local police force. The three men convicted for a role in his murder were local police officers and a bodyguard for the towns mayor. After news of the his murder spread, the mayor of the town fled. His son says how "there has been a lack of political will from the current and previous federal governments to solve this and other cases."
Jorge Sánchez, son of Moisés Sánchez Cerezo
Article 19, a freedom of expression pressure advocacy group, published a report stating how 99% of attacks against journalists go unpunished and half of the documents attacks agaisnt journalist in 2017, had state actors "directly or indirectly" involved.Ana Cristina Ruelas, the director of Article 19 for Mexico and Central America, believes the actions that Amlo's government has taken to face the growing problems for journalists are "symbolic" saying, "there still haven't been actions that lead us to think that things will change."
Reaction:
After reading the article and seeing the tragedies of the murdered journalists it is obvious that significant change need to happen in Mexico. I am worried about the state of living that journalists in Mexico have to go through everyday. It is terrifying to know that the person who has sworn to protect journalists has failed and isn't even seeming to put an effort towards a solution. The murders of Rafael Murúa and Moisés Sánchez Cerezo are two cases that point out two glaring problems in the government's attempt to protect journalists. Murúa's case highlights how the government's protection programme is heavily flawed and isn't safe while Cerezo's case highlights the issue of political figures being the initiators of the murders.
Connection:
In Mexico, journalists are being murdered by political figures in an attempt to silence the content that they publish. This heavily relates to the totalitarian eras of Italy, Russia, and Germany. In those totalitarian eras, the government wanted full control over the citizens. Figuring out that they couldn't convince everyone to be on their side, they began to mass murder anyone who opposed their ideas, media being a very large target. In both the historical and modern cases, the media is targeted by political figures and bodies in a hope to silence what they publish. More and more politically driven murders are showing up and no matter who ordered the murders, the highest government in the country isn't doing anything significant or effective toward handling the glaring issue.
Discussion Questions:
- What can the Mexican government do to protect the lives of their journalists?
- Is it possible for journalists in Mexico to be safe from physical and online attacks?
- How will the current failures of the Mexican government to protect their journalist affect their international relationships?
A first step that the Mexican Government can definitely take in protecting the lives of their journalists is to punish the illegal attacks on journalist. As the article mentioned, 99% (a shocking amount) of the attacks on Mexican journalists go unpunished. This only further heightens these occurrences, for if there are no consequences for these tragedies, then there will always be a constant threat to journalists’ lives. The government should respond to these events by bringing these cases to the court, where the people involved in the killings should get the punishments for murder. Furthermore, the according to the article “Mr Murúa had been placed under the protection programme… even though extra security measures were meant to be installed at his home, the works had not been carried out fully by the time of his disappearance.” Although the government has taken a right step in 2012 by creating a protection program, it needs to ensure that such programs have effective procedures in protecting the journalists who are in danger. Candido Rios Vazquez is another example of a Mexican journalist who was a member of the protection program, yet failed to be protected, as he was murdered shortly after being enrolled. Many journalists say that this program is highly ineffective since although it protects the journalists’ homes, their profession is not in their homes, but outside, which still leaves them vulnerable to attacks. If the government finds better ways to protect the journalists, the rate of attacks on them will decrease.
ReplyDeleteSource: https://www.theyucatantimes.com/2017/11/analysis-mexicos-journalist-protection-program-ineffective/
I strongly agree with many of the points Harbani made. Protecting journalists is important in order to have a functioning democracy. In order to protect their journalists I believe Mexico should try to strengthen their journalist protection program and make efforts to punish more of the murderers and more harshly. It is necessary to focus on punishing the murderers based on known laws already in place. People considering killing journalists need to be deterred because they believe they will face punishment for their actions. I think if these steps are taken journalists will be safer much more quickly. Other countries in the world will most likely be more reluctant to maintain positive foreign relations. Freedom of speech is important to many countries throughout the world. Mexico needs to protect their journalists to help save their foreign relations.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.cnn.com/2019/02/10/americas/mexico-journalist-shot/index.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2017/world/torn-apart-by-drug-violence-mexico-aims-to-reform-justice-system/?utm_term=.dca28d02dcd6
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/jul/23/mexico-crime-homicides-violence-up-report
It is astonishing that this has been a problem for so long and journalists in Mexico still cannot feel safe. Despite Government attempts to protect these journalists, they are still being murdered. The longer this goes on, the more people are going to start questioning the security of their country and govt. as well as the trust they give. People will also start to refrain from sharing their opinion and practicing their right to freedom of speech, due to fear of others. And this is also due to the fact that many of the murderers go unpunished. So, although the govt. is focusing on protecting the journalists from being killed, they aren't necessarily attempting to prevent the problem from ever happening again. They should add more emphasis on not letting this continue, because obviously their Government's way of adding security has not been working. It is important that the citizens and residents of a country feel safe living their everyday lives and exercising their rights, such as freedom of speech that many see in journalism.
ReplyDeleteThe Mexican government seems to be on the right track when it comes to protecting its journalists from people that want to kill them, putting aside the 5 deaths thus far. The next steps, in my opinion, from the establishment of the program is to ramp up security for the journalists and start passing stricter laws against killing journalists for posting articles about political figures. As the people in the article said, journalists are entirely necessary for a functioning democracy, and they should not have to bow to a corrupt politician's scare tactics. Mexico's government might also feel some backlash from the more democratic countries like the UK for not protecting the rights of the media, as most of them adamantly uphold (the US' current leader has not exactly shown the most kind attitude towards the media [ex: https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1082259636227620865?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw]). However, because journalists have to have a strong media presence and have to outreach to their community to gain an audience, it would be extremely difficult to avoid online and physical attacks. This is especially true in Mexico, because as these stories have shown, people in high power positions really don't enjoy the media ratting them out. Later on, if the situation progresses further, this could extend to journalists covering extremist groups with organizations in Mexico. It's just not within a journalist's job description to cover what is relevant and true without garnering unwanted attention with people who don't enjoy being covered in an unsavory light.
ReplyDeleteThe violence and lack of protection received by journalists in Mexico is absolutely saddening. The fact that innocent people are being dragged out of their homes and killed for doing their jobs is completely wrong and needs to be stopped. When handling a situation like this, it is very difficult to ensure the safety of the journalists. Since they risk their lives every day in order to write their stories, it is impossible to protect them from all the hate and disagreement of their readers. I do believe that strengthening the current government protection programs will directly benefit/ improve the current well being of the Mexican journalists, however, to be completely safe, I feel more precautions must be taken. By setting up more security in one's house as well as doing more thorough background checks on the hired guards, the conditions will hopefully improve. I also think that the fact that Moisés Sánchez Cerezo's suspected murderers had ties to the Mexican government further displays the true instability in the country. As the current protection programs are backed by the government, it is clear that many additional steps must be taken to further secure the safety of the journalists, as they should never have to live fearful for their lives for voicing the beliefs of the people.
ReplyDeleteSince the murder rates for journalists are increasing, something the Mexican government can do is to punish the people attacking journalists. It is sad to see how journalists are not safe from their job and what they have to do for a living. The government should be able to punish the people killing the journalists and hire more security to ensure that journalists stays safe.
ReplyDeleteThe Mexican government needs to establish and enforce it's laws much more strongly. In the article, the Mexican journalist was murdered because of writing a newspaper that reported "irregularities" on the local police force by causing the police force to murder him. This is a obvious sign that Mexico needs to establish a stronger government because those in power are getting corrupt, such as those police officers, who in order to protect their position, murdered the journalist because it was threatening them. Similar to how those in government become corrupt for personal benefit, police officers in Mexico are getting bribed and corrupted by gangs (https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/mexico-acapulco-police-corruption-drug-gangs-disarm-military-a8555756.html), which needs to be addressed by cracking down on the mafia and gangs in the region, while dramatically increasing the punishments for those who become corrupt in the government. As of right now, I highly doubt journalists will ever be safe from both attacks online and physical due to the lack of enforcement from the Mexican government. Even now, not only journalists, but citizens aren't safe, as shown by the US border issue with many people fleeing from Central and South American for asylum away from gang violence. As for Mexico's international relationships, even now, because of gang violence people are advised not to travel to certain regions in Mexico (https://www.cnbc.com/2018/03/16/where-to-travel-in-mexico.html). This is important because not only is corruption and gang violence in Mexico affecting the freedom and safety of journalists to publish their work, but it is also threatening the safety of their citizens, and the citizens of other countries visiting Mexico internationally.
ReplyDeleteThe Mexican government can protect the lives of their journalists by punishing those who do commit the crimes as well as enforcing protection for journalists more strictly. Like the article states, the Murua did not receive extra security measures that were meant to be installed in his home. Rooting out corruption within the government also would hopefully help to protect journalists. According to the article, many people within the local government most likely had a role in the death of Murua. This could be theme across the rest of the murders of journalists in Mexico as well. By taking these steps, I believe that it would be possible for Mexican journalists to be safe from attacks.
ReplyDeleteAccording to Journalism in the Americas from the University of Texas at Austin, (https://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/00-20437-murders-journalists-rises-globally-mexico-leads-latin-america-professionals-killed-the) Mexico is one of the deadliest countries to be in when one is a journalist. This gives a negative reputation for Mexico and could make some reluctant to work with a potentially corrupt government.
Along with my fellow commenters I believe that punishing the people behind the crime is a good step, but I don't think this addresses the underlying issue of these horrible deaths. I believe that this issue ties to the deeper problem of corruption that is rampant across Mexico. For example, your article describes how Cerezo's murderers were police officers and a bodyguard for the towns mayor. If it's people connected to or in the government that are committing crimes against reporters, then this ties to a much more serious issue. How can we expect people to be punished if the people in charge of punishing are also committing the crimes? I believe that in order to truly start making Mexico safer for reports they will need to tackle the problem of corruption in local government. This was attempted in 2017 when new anti-corruption laws were passed, but they have been ineffective. It total in order to keep journalists safe and potentially improve their international relations they should really focus on cracking down on corruption.
ReplyDeletehttps://www.business-anti-corruption.com/country-profiles/mexico/
I believe that Mexico should try to pursue the attackers more and punish them, as well as try to end corruption with the people in power. As stated in the article, almost all of the murders are not punished, which makes it so others who would want to silence other reporters would see nothing too bad stopping them from doing so. Also, a few of the attacks were also ordered by drug cartels or politicians partnering with drug cartels, so cracking down even harder on drug cartels and trying to end the drug cartels could help solve parts of the problem (https://www.bbc.com/news/world-latin-america-39436568). This could also help Mexico solve more of its problems with violence and even possibly help immigration, since many are leaving due to too much violence. I also believe that the failures of the government to protect journalists would cause many of their international relationships with democratic countries to worsen, since freedom of speech is so important and this problem is revealing the Mexican government's corruption problem. Having other governments that they would want to ally with calling out Mexico on corruption could also possibly help in the government making sure leaders are not corrupt, and make sure corruption cases are investigated. If the corrupt leader was removed from power before silencing their critics, it could possibly help reduce a lot of murders of reporters.
ReplyDeleteI think it is possible for journalists in Mexico to be safe from physical and online attacks. But the Mexican government needs to take measures to make this happen, but what also needs to happen is that the government can’t be corrupt anymore. As we see with the journalist Moisés Sánchez Cerezo, the people who were arrested for his murder were policemen and the bodyguard of the mayor of the town he wrote articles about. The people connected to his murder are also connected to the government so measures also need to be taken against this corruption within the government. The good thing that the government has done is that it has created a programme that offers protection for journalists that are deemed at risk. This is a good start as they have created a base to start from. But they need to take measures to make sure that this programme does work because as we see with Rafael Murúa, though he is apart of this programme, we see that no measures were taken to secure his safety. So though I think that this is a good idea, the Mexican government needs to take measures to make sure that this programme works.
ReplyDeleteSeeing journalists being harmed and murdered for simply doing their job is appalling, and in no way justified. The original article states that the lack of punishment is the government stripping away their justice. In effort to help protect the lives of their journalists and satisfy their demands of justice, I believe the Mexican government should enforce stricter laws and punishment toward those harming the journalists. Reading this article reminded me of the one about journalist, Maria Ressa. Citizens in both countries are being punished for their jobs, but it’s important to protect them because they are the people necessary for a functioning democracy.
ReplyDeleteI believe that journalists will always be exposed to threats from civilians and people in power, but I think that the government can take certain precautions to make sure that these threats are not played out. As the article said, 99% of the attacks and murders are ignored and no legal action is taken against them, and I think the government should first punish the people responsible for past violence for justice and as a warning to people making threats. These people will be comfortable taking action against the journalists if there is no consequence, so to first help lower the threats and attacks, past violent occurance should be dealt with. I also think the government can put stricter laws and restrictions in place to protect journalists from future attacks. Amlo previously stated that he was going to take action, but has not done so yet. I believe that if he did what he has promised to protect journalists, it will have a huge positive impact on the threats and violence occuring.
ReplyDeleteI believe the Mexican government should stress more protection for journalists who have been in more danger then ever. The government should also be on top of these crimes and install harsher punishments, 99% of attacks and murders are ignored which is unacceptable.I don't think journalists will ever be safe from criticism because writing will always have two sides and there will never be a proper agreement, that doesn't mean journalist can't be protected from physical harm. If journalists are protected better and shielded from opposition, it is possible for journalists can be protected from physical harm.I think because of these common occurrences the government is going to receive a lot of criticism on handling their country but the most criticism is going to come from citizens who may find their community less safe because the government cannot even protect their journalists.
ReplyDeleteI think it’s possible for Mexican journalists to be safe from physical attacks if the government gave proper aid to the journalists under threat, but I think online attacks would be much harder to be safe from when many of these journalists have social media platforms. Nevertheless, I think journalists can be protected by the government, and though the Mexican govt. provides protective programs for journalists, it is evident that it was unable to prevent the murders of Rafael Murúa and Candido Rios Vazquez (https://www.latimes.com/world/mexico-americas/la-fg-mexico-journalist-killing-20170823-story.html). 99% of the attacks against journalists going unpunished also displays inefficiency on the govt.’s part and the President of Mexico’s inability to keep his promise. If people are beginning to think that the motions the government is making are merely “symbolic” there is an obvious fault in the government when it comes to preventing the attacks on journalists. If the Mexican govt. figures out a way to effectively protect its citizens who fight for justice, only then can Mexican journalists be safe from physical attacks.
ReplyDeleteI completely agree with you that journalists in Mexico can be safe from physical attacks, but it may be harder that it seems. Although there is already a system in place to protect journalists, based on prior events, it is obvious that it isn't working. I believe instead of creating more protective programs, the government should focus on improving the ones that have worked the best. (If any have) On the other hand, simply saying that the government should improve the protective programs ignore a glaring issue, the political motive of many of these murders. It is hard for a government to keep journalists safe when portions of the same government may also wants them dead. Instead of trying to react to the problem, the non murderous people in the Mexican government should attempt to create deterrents toward killings of journalists. They need to send a message that they care about the safety of their journalists and will be willing to heavily punish anyone who attempts to silence people for publishing facts. All in all, I agree with your ideas on improving protective programs, but I believe another way to tackle the problem is to create something to reduce attacks instead of saving people from attacks.
DeleteAs of right now, I don’t think that they can guarantee protection to journalists because they have evidence of them allowing the journalist being killed. I also don’t think journalists in Mexico are safe from physical and online attacks because the government is notorious for killing them just for having differing opinions. Also, other people might support the government and attack them in real life as well as on the internet. The government may not do anything because they will support their supporters and may cover up the fact that the journalist is dead. I think that the Mexican government’s failure to protect journalist will inevitably lead to the journalist leaving the country and reporting bad things in Mexico. This may also lead to a bad image on Mexico in the international community and Mexico will suffer consequences as a result.
ReplyDeleteI believe that journalists will constantly get threats and hate from civilians, therefore, i do not think they can guarantee the protection over them. I do believe that the government can take certain steps into ensuring these threats do not happen. As stated in the article, "99% of attacks against journalists go unpunished and half of the documents attacks against journalist in 2017". Knowing this information, I believe the government should take precaution and punish the person of violence because seeing journalists getting killed for doing their job is not only alarming but disheartening. A way to help decrease the threats of violence can be applying strict restrictions in places where journalists work. Overall, the government should hire more security to ensure that journalists stay safe.
ReplyDeleteLike everyone here, I'm also in agreement that the best case scenario is the punishment of attackers as well as stress the utter security of journalists. However, I feel that's easier said that done most of the time. However, I also agree with Jason in how the main underlying problem is the corruption of the government as in the article it says "99% of attacks against journalists have gone unpunished and state actors were "directly or indirectly" involved in at least half of the cases documented in 2017." If about 50% of attacks have a relation to the government, which is supposedly trying to help, that's a huge issue. Safety for journalists physically and online I'm not so sure about. Online I am a believer there is no safety/privacy and so there's that out the window. That leads to physically, if online safety/privacy seems to be nonexistent in this day and age, all the information can and will be used against you for those who want to use it for those means. How this will affect international relationships? It may look bad however on the positive side, at least the effort is commendable, but that's from my eyes. On an international scale, I'd say Mexico does not look to hot especially when journalist safety is akin to a warzone in terms of deadliness to journalists at the start of the article.
ReplyDelete