In the wake of journalists recently murdered in Mexico, the country’s president, Felipe Calderon met with two international press organizations last week for recommendations on how to stop the violence.
The meeting with the Inter-American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) reportedly had a positive tone and Calderon promised to do what he can to help.
Even though he says the situation with criminal groups already existed when he took office in 2006, on Calderon’s watch the CPJ says that over 30 journalists have been killed or disappeared. At the heart of what is terrorizing the journalist community in Mexico is criminal groups using violence to control information in different regions of the country.
During the 90-minute meeting with Calderon, CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon writes on the CPJ blog that they made specific requests of the Mexican government to help end the cycle of violence:
…we asked the president to do four things: Push for legislation making crimes against freedom of expression a federal offense; strengthen the office of the special prosecutor charged with prosecuting such crimes; create a government commission to provide security to journalists under threat; and take action to stem abuses against journalists committed by the security forces involved in the fight against organized crime.
Calderon didn’t make any intractable promises, but at least he took the time to listen, and pledged to do what he could to provide more protection, support, and consequences.
The situation is grave and not getting any better, and the journalist community is hoping the federal government can intervene and affect some positive changes. But Mexican journalists and the journalism community in Mexico at large is not hopeful that the government can make it safe for them to work again. As bureaucrats grind out possible solutions, they must continue to work in an exposed situation as targets.
As the CPJ’s Joel Simon wrote about the meeting:
…the 30-plus journalists killed and disappeared since the beginning of the president’s term in 2006 are not collateral damage as some have suggested. Rather, the media is a deliberate target in a campaign by criminal groups to dictate what can and cannot be reported in the areas they control.