Journalists in Mexico Take Crisis of Rising Violence Into Their Own Hands teleSUR
go to original June 9, 2017

Furious journalists in Mexico City have held protests following the murder of one of their colleagues and called on the government to do more to defend the profession. (Euronews)

As the bodies of slain journalists continue to pile up in Mexico with more than 100 murders of media workers since 2000, members of the press who live and work in Mexico are banding together to address the systemic violence with concrete action.

Some 360 journalist and 50 national and international media organizations have decided that protests and petitions alone are not enough to stop the heinous slaughter of media workers as the federal government continues to turn a blind eye. With soaring rates of impunity and a lack of urgency and accountability from authorities, reporters are looking for their own ways to tackle the crisis.

Under the banner Journalists' Agenda, the new initiative will bring the over 300 journalists together between June 14 and 16 to discuss ways to take the issue of protecting journalists into their own hands.

"Given the context of systemic violence against journalists ... we invite all people interested to participate in building an agenda with short and medium-term goals to protect jouralists," reads the Journalists' Agenda wesbite.

At the center of the initiative are six roundtables for journalists to discuss a variety topics including risk and attention, combating impunity, strengthening of social organizations, labor rights of journalists, public security reactions and the cost of attacks on journalists.

"The aim of each (roundtable) is that they serve to share experiences and define what needs to be done, who should do it and how we are going to organize ourselves to demand that it gets done," the website explains.

Read the rest at teleSUR

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