Mexico
Mexico most dangerous place to be a journalistPosted Sep 9 2011
Mexico and Iraq are no longer tied for the most dangerous place to be a journalist. Two more journalists were killed in Mexico this weekend, putting murders of journalists in Mexico at 10 since 2011 and 80 since 2000 according to a Sept. 2 Reporters Without Borders article.
Both Ana María Yarce Viveros, the founder of the weekly magazine Contralínea, and Rocio González Trápaga, a freelance journalist formerly of Televisa, were kidnapped Aug. 31 as they left their offices. Both were found naked, bound and strangled. Although no arrests have been made, the treatment of the women’s bodies is indicative of drug cartels, according to the Reporters Without Borders article.
In other news in Mexico, two people, Gilberto Martínez Vera, 35, and María de Jesús Bravo Pagola, 34 were arrested Aug. 25 for terrorism and sabotage after the two posted warnings on Facebook and Twitter about possible organized crime attacks at a Veracruz school.
According to a Sept. 1 Reporters Without Borders article, the Veracruz state public prosecutor’s office accused them of intending to provoke “disturbances of the state’s social, economic and educative life” and “anxiety and fear reactions in parents,” as cited in an Aug. 27 statement by the Veracruz state public prosecutor’s office.
The two face possible jail time of three to 30 years, which totals fines up to 750 days of their salaries as well as a loss of political rights for five years if found guilty.
Whether by the government or drug cartels, journalists in Mexico often face extreme risks in reporting about the War on Drugs and thus, many are self-censoring, in fear of retribution by the cartels. According to Reporters Without Borders, more than 45,000 people in Mexico have lost their lives in the drug trafficking war since December 2010.