An Epidemic of Violence Against Journalists in Mexico Alejandra Ibarra Chaoul and Kevin Sieff - The Washington Post
go to original May 16, 2022

Journalists and family members protest the killing of journalists at the Angel of Independence monument in Mexico City. (Alfredo Estrella/AFP/Getty)

With the shooting deaths of a cameraperson and a director in Veracruz state, the number of journalists killed in Mexico this year is now up to 11. That’s more than in Ukraine, where the world’s press corps is covering a war.

Mexico has long been one of the world’s most dangerous countries to be a journalist. But 2022’s killing rampage is on pace to more than triple last year’s total. The increase has left many here wondering what has changed — how to explain the epidemic of violence against reporters, editors and photographers.

Sheila Johana García Olivera and Yesenia Mollinedo Falconi of the online news outlet El Veraz were shot Monday night while sitting in a car outside a convenience store. Neither survived. Mollinedo Falconi had received threats for her journalistic work, her brother said.

The Crime-Fighting Power of Cross-Border Investigative Journalism (TED2022)

A closer look at this year’s killings suggests no single reason explains the uptick. No one criminal organization or arm of the government is responsible. Instead, the deaths point to the wide range of threats that journalists here face daily — and the impunity that allows their killers to act without fear of consequence.

The slain media workers shared some characteristics that put them at risk. Many worked for small, independent, often online-only outlets — some of which published only on Facebook — leaving them without any institutional support or physical protection. Some relied on other sources of income — driving cabs, selling tacos, delivering food — to make ends meet.

Ascertaining motives behind their killings is a challenge. “There’s a very high percentage in impunity,” Alejandro Encinas Rodríguez, Mexico’s deputy interior minister responsible for human rights, said in late 2020, when only 5 percent of homicides under the administration of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador had resulted in a sentence.

Since then, 19 more journalists have been killed. The government says it has opened investigations in many of the cases, but the information is often sparse and sometimes not shared with colleagues or family members. Some continue only because of pressure from family members and advocates. But the information that does exist — what journalists were covering before their deaths and the threats they faced — offers some clues.

Read the rest at The Washington Post

Related: 3 Journalists Killed Over 3 Days in Mexico (WVIK.org)

Related: News Leaders Statement on Murder of Journalists in Mexico (PRNewswire)

Related: Mexico Offers Bodyguards and Bulletproof Vests to Vulnerable Journalists. It Hasn’t Been Enough. (The Washington Post)

Related: The US Shows Its Concern Over Murder of Journalists in Mexico (Royals Blue)

Related: Inter-American Rights Commission Urges Action to Stop Violence Against Media (Mexico News Daily)