Reporters Without Borders
October 3, 2013
Reporters Without Borders condemns the assault of more than fifteen journalists by demonstrators and police in Mexico City yesterday while they were covering parades marking the 45th anniversary of a student massacre in 1968. The figure is conservative.
“Reporters Without Borders calls on the Special Attorney’s office for Crimes against Freedom of Expression (FEADLE) to open independent investigations to get to the bottom of these assaults and punish those responsible,” the press freedom organization said.
“We have previously noted that that abuses directed at journalists covering demonstrations will continue unless they are punished. The trivialization of violence against journalists undermines media coverage of events of this nature. We point out that, without journalists, the demonstrators’ message would not be heard by the public.”
Guillermo Barros of the French news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP) told Reporters Without Borders: “I was covering the parade when the police started hitting the demonstrators to disperse them. Even though I identified myself as a journalist, a police officer struck me on the head with his baton.” Read more.
The MexicoBlog of the Americas Program, a fiscally sponsored program of the Center for Economic and Policy Research (CEPR), is written by Laura Carlsen. I monitor and analyze international press on Mexico, with a focus on security, immigration, human rights and social movements for peace and justice, from a feminist perspective. And sometimes I simply muse.
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