Regional Editors – Iran, China, Mexico and Egypt

We are looking to recruit four regional experts with local contacts, expertise and language skills in Iran, China, Mexico and Egypt

To further extend our reach and impact, at home and abroad, Index on Censorship is launching a world-wide regional editors programme.

Four programmes each year for three years are planned in different priority regions for freedom of expression, each one led by regional experts with local contacts, expertise and language skills. These part-time positions are offered on a 12-month basis, with the intention that editors will continue to contribute to Index at the end of this period.

These roles are intended to be in-country however we may make exceptions in the cases of China and Iran.

The editors will play an essential role in Index’s plans for website expansion, bringing in a wider group of contributors and bloggers for the website. They will be talent scouts – advising us on emerging artists, musicians, free speech advocates, lawyers and writers directly engaging with challenging political issues or censorship.

The local editors’ role is to help the website ­– which is currently undergoing a redesign – to become the portal for discussing free speech in the UK and beyond, to develop new content and new audiences, to break free expression news and publish insightful analysis of censorship issues, to provide opinion, analysis, comment and reportage from sources all over the world and to promote content and share ideas through social media.

Editors will also be invited to contribute to Index’s quarterly award-winning magazine, suggest contributors, and help research and commission. They must have proven writing experience – ideally in journalism – and be able to contribute blogs and longer pieces to Index’s website at short notice.

The experts will closely coordinate with Index on Censorship’s London editorial desk, under the direction of editor Jo Glanville and online editor Emily Butselaar.

They will work to a discrete programme of activities in each region, to enhance and extend Index on Censorship’s publishing activities, advocacy initiatives and arts programming, including a special focus on free expression in the world of literature.

Their work will be incorporated into all areas of our organisation, creating a central resource for the magazine and through its programme of partnership activities, a resource in the literature sector by unearthing new writers, especially in translation, and leading them to publishing opportunities.

Applicants should have proven expertise in the field of free expression, earned through legal or advocacy experience or journalism and the arts.

If you are interested in applying for one of these positions please write to Emily Butselaar via Emily[at]indexoncensorship.org

Mexico: Journalist found dead, another goes missing

Enrique Villicana Palomares, a teacher and a columnist for the daily newspaper “La Voz de Michoacán“, was found dead on 10 April in Morelia, in the southern state of Michoacán, five days after he was kidnapped. The Michoacán state justice department was being notified two weeks ago that threats had been made against him. His death came in the same week that another Michoacán journalist, Ramón Ángeles Zalpa of the newspaper “Cambio” was reported missing.

Journalists abducted in Mexico

On March 4, a reporter and camera operator for Milenio Televisión were kidnapped in Reynosa, Tamaulipas state (northeastern Mexico) while covering a wave of violence caused by a dispute between two of the regions rival drug trafficking groups. The journalists were later released with a warning, “Don’t come here to heat things up.”

Ciro Gómez Leyva, Assistant Editorial Director for the Milenio Group, who sent the crew to Reynosa, wrote in a column: “Every day in more regions in Mexico it is impossible to do reporting. Journalism is dead in Reynosa, etcetera. I have nothing else to say.”

“In the past 14 days, at least eight Mexican journalists have been abducted in Reynosa”,  Alfredo Corchado reports. “One died after a severe beating, according to reports that could not be independently verified. Two were released by their captors. The rest are missing.”

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