Human Rights Commission Hears Deafening Silence from Mexico Journalists Dallas Morning News
go to original August 24, 2013

Excerpts from Mexican journalist Marcela Turati's keynote address June 25 to the Investigative Reporters and Editors’ annual conference in San Antonio. (IRE NICAR)

A commendable new report by Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission documents a horrific increase in the number of killings, disappearances and threats against journalists over the past 13 years. The mounting danger for Mexican journalists coincides with growing turf battles between that country’s drug cartels as they jockey for control of major export routes.

Make no mistake about the motives behind these threats and attacks: The drug cartels recognize that news reports help alert the public about the criminal menace in their midst. News media scrutiny puts pressure on state and local authorities to crack down, which is especially embarrassing if those officials are secretly colluding with the cartels.

By silencing journalists, the cartels gain a much freer hand to do their dirty work. “The battle to control information is underway at this very moment,” says Marcela Turati, a reporter for the weekly investigative magazine Proceso.

In America, press freedoms often are taken for granted because U.S.-based journalists rarely face the kinds of danger that Mexican reporters, editors and photographers encounter on a daily basis. In Mexico, reporters have been tortured and beheaded. Prosecutions are rare, which adds to the sense of impunity.

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