FSRN Radio News
April 11, 2014
New telecommunications regulations in Mexico have met opposition online and in the streets. The reform was originally presented as a way to break up telecom monopolies, but critics say it is being used to push through laws which would make lawful the mass surveillance of online activites and make government censorship easy and arbitrary. Activists in Mexico City protested the law Thursday by marching from the headquarters of Televisa – the country’s largest broadcaster – to the Senate. At the march, FSRN’s Andalusia Knoll spoke with Mexican digital rights activist Luis Fernando Garcia. 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.
Showing posts with label freedom of expression-Mexico. Show all posts
Showing posts with label freedom of expression-Mexico. Show all posts
Apr 14, 2014
Jan 14, 2013
Twitter: The Safest Place for Citizen Journalists in Mexico
Mashable: Fran Berkman
A cohort of Twitter users with fake names and profile pictures have become a trusted source of information regarding drug cartel violence in Mexico.
These citizen journalists choose to remain anonymous to avoid violent backlash from gang members, but their reports have become increasingly influential.
On Jan. 8, a team from Microsoft Research published a paper called "The New War Correspondents: The Rise of Civic Media Curation in Urban Warfare," which details a social media study conducted over the past two years. Their main finding was that as Mexicans increasingly turn to Twitter for reports of violence, a core of mostly anonymous yet trusted curators have led the dissemination of public safety information.
"You find this small cluster of people, whom we call curators, who tend to be really well-regarded in their cities," Andrés Monroy-Hernández, one of the paper's five co-authors, tells Mashable. "These particular curators are those that have a lot of followers, which means that they're somewhat trusted by the community."
In the paper, the authors discuss how difficult it was to contact and interview the curators, who feel the work puts their lives in danger. Read more.
Nov 20, 2012
Mexican press: Self preservation becomes self censorship
XIndex November 16, 2012
In Mexico drug cartels continue to dictate news agenda and in some areas, have even infiltrated the newsroom. A new investigation by Fundacion MEPI reveals the extent to which news outlets fear of cartel retaliation and a shortage of accurate government information keep the public in the dark.
MEXICO CITY – It was 38 minutes into the First Division football match at the Santos Modelo Stadium, about 275 miles from the US border, when players suddenly started running from the pitch to their locker rooms. Popping sounds interrupted the announcers. More than one million Mexican television viewers watched as a firefight between the country’s most ruthless drug cartel and local police unfolded.
The images broadcast from the industrial town of Torreon showed terrified men, women and children crouching under the stadium seats and scrambling for cover. Television Azteca, the second largest Mexican network, stopped transmission of the game. But ESPN continued, breaking its audience records worldwide for a domestic soccer match.
It was the first time drug-related violence had played out on live television alongside the country’s beloved national sport. But it also highlighted another battle, one raging inside the local Mexican media as criminal groups have continue to muzzle regional reporting on drug violence — savagery that has left more than 60,000 dead since outgoing President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.
Despite the stadium gun battle’s obvious news value, in the newsroom of the local daily El Siglo de Torreon, editors and reporters pondered whether to publish news of the shootout in a prominent place in the following day’s paper. The attack had pitted the Zetas organised crime group against a municipal police contingent parked near the stadium. Read more.
In Mexico drug cartels continue to dictate news agenda and in some areas, have even infiltrated the newsroom. A new investigation by Fundacion MEPI reveals the extent to which news outlets fear of cartel retaliation and a shortage of accurate government information keep the public in the dark.
MEXICO CITY – It was 38 minutes into the First Division football match at the Santos Modelo Stadium, about 275 miles from the US border, when players suddenly started running from the pitch to their locker rooms. Popping sounds interrupted the announcers. More than one million Mexican television viewers watched as a firefight between the country’s most ruthless drug cartel and local police unfolded.
The images broadcast from the industrial town of Torreon showed terrified men, women and children crouching under the stadium seats and scrambling for cover. Television Azteca, the second largest Mexican network, stopped transmission of the game. But ESPN continued, breaking its audience records worldwide for a domestic soccer match.
It was the first time drug-related violence had played out on live television alongside the country’s beloved national sport. But it also highlighted another battle, one raging inside the local Mexican media as criminal groups have continue to muzzle regional reporting on drug violence — savagery that has left more than 60,000 dead since outgoing President Felipe Calderon took office in December 2006.
Despite the stadium gun battle’s obvious news value, in the newsroom of the local daily El Siglo de Torreon, editors and reporters pondered whether to publish news of the shootout in a prominent place in the following day’s paper. The attack had pitted the Zetas organised crime group against a municipal police contingent parked near the stadium. Read more.
Jun 23, 2012
Killings Curb Reporting of Mexican Crime Wave
NYT: XALAPA, MEXICO -- Mexico for several years has been one of the most dangerous countries in
the world for journalists, with 45 killed or missing since 2007, according to one tally. But Veracruz State is considered the most dangerous
patch of all in which to report the news. The violence here has gone
off the charts, with at least nine journalists killed in the past year
and a half.
Veracruz, with prime drug and migrant trafficking routes crisscrossing
the state, plus a busy port on the Gulf of Mexico known for smuggling
contraband, has erupted into a battleground, as two of the most powerful
organized crime groups, the Zetas and the Sinaloa cartel, fight for
dominance.
Read moreMar 28, 2012
Journalists Urge Mexico to Investigate Attacks on Media
Fox News Latino The Committee to Protect Journalists issued a statement Tuesday condemning recent attacks on a newspaper and television station in Mexico and demanding prosecution of the perpetrators. Both incidents took place in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, a battleground for warring drug cartels.
The first attack took place March 19, when a car bomb exploded outside the offices of Expreso newspaper in Ciudad Victoria, leaving five passersby injured.
Two days ago, an unidentified assailant hurled a grenade at the Televisa television studios in Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Read more
The first attack took place March 19, when a car bomb exploded outside the offices of Expreso newspaper in Ciudad Victoria, leaving five passersby injured.
Two days ago, an unidentified assailant hurled a grenade at the Televisa television studios in Matamoros, just across the border from Brownsville, Texas. Read more
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