03 May 18 | Journalism Toolbox Spanish
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Apps de redes sociales en un smartphone, Jason Howie/Flickr
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Un truculento vídeo circuló extensamente por internet en 2012. En él salían dos hombres aterrorizados, con el pecho descubierto, sentados contra un muro de ladrillo rojo mientras una figura vestida de militar se alzaba sobre ellos, poniendo en marcha una motosierra. Desde fuera del encuadre, alguien vociferaba órdenes en árabe. Los hombres eran brutalmente asesinados.
El vídeo lo publicaron las fuerzas contrarias al gobierno de Siria como prueba de los crímenes de guerra cometidos por el régimen de Assad. Pero no era lo que parecía. El vídeo se había originado cinco años atrás, en México, donde los cárteles de drogas llevan mucho tiempo ejecutando violentamente a sus oponentes. En un golpe de astucia, alguien dobló el sonido para que sirviese de propaganda, y muchos se lo tragaron.
Las noticias inventadas no solo provienen de «lobos solitarios» que se dedican a extender bulos por internet. Gobiernos como el mexicano o el turco y otras organizaciones políticas se están aficionando a utilizar las redes sociales para manipular y extender información falsa. Siempre se ha esperado de los periodistas que utilicen sus habilidades detectivescas para encontrar la fuente del material. Pero con el potencial de las denuncias online de influir en el contenido informativo de todas partes del mundo —mucho más rápido que las noticias impresas—, las probabilidades de que circulen falsedades como si fueran hechos son más altas que nunca. Afortunadamente, la tecnología también nos ha dotado de un nuevo surtido de herramientas que pueden ayudarnos a discernir si quienes cuentan la historia también dicen la verdad.
La verificación online sigue los mismos principios básicos afianzados durante décadas de prensa escrita: sospecha de todo, siempre ten más de una fuente para cada declaración e identifica el quién, qué, dónde, cuándo, cómo y por qué. Cada vez es más frecuente que personas de a pie, interesadas en analizar a fondo una noticia antes de creérsela, perfeccionen este tipo de técnicas.
La forma más habitual de desinformación digital es la reutilización de imágenes antiguas en el contexto de una noticia nueva. A muchas de las noticias de más calado las suelen acompañar imágenes recicladas. Ha pasado durante la guerra de Siria con inquietante frecuencia, pero también fue evidente durante los atentados de París de noviembre de 2015, el secuestro de Bamako en Mali, una semana después, y el terremoto de Nepal del pasado abril. (¿Recordáis la foto de los dos pequeños abrazados que estuvo circulando después del terremoto? La sacaron en Vietnam en 2007.)
El modo más rápido de comprobar el trasfondo de una foto en internet es hacer una búsqueda invertida de la imagen (esto es, una búsqueda generada a partir de una imagen en lugar de con palabras). Google tiene archivados cientos de miles de millones de imágenes, y cualquiera puede subir un archivo de imagen o pegar la URL de una foto en su barra de búsqueda para contrastarla con las coincidencias de la base de datos. Se puede echar una red aún más amplia con un plug-in de Google Chrome llamado RevEye, que comprueba las bases de datos de Google, Tiny Eye, Bing, la compañía web rusa Yandex y el buscador chino Baidu. Si hubieran utilizado estas sencillas herramientas, muchas entidades informativas se habrían evitado el bochorno de publicar imágenes antiguas como si fueran nuevas.
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El decálogo del periodista para la verificación de los hechos
En un mundo rebosante de novedosos trucos digitales, los periodistas no deberían olvidarse de las técnicas tradicionales de verificación, afirma un ex editor de prensa
PETER SANDS
¿Puedes demostrarlo? Esas son probablemente las palabras que más pronuncié durante mis años como editor de un diario. Había reporteros entusiastas que siempre venían con la libreta llena de rumores: un miembro del parlamento ha dejado a su mujer, han suspendido al jefe de policía… Luego los lanzaban en la reunión diaria de la redacción. Entonces yo, exagerando el tono de desencanto, hacía la pregunta clave: «¿Puedes demostrarlo?» Nunca volvía a oír ni la mitad de aquellas historias.
Contábamos con la ventaja de que, si nos llegaba una pista a mediodía, teníamos nueve horas para encontrar el modo de demostrarla. Si no habíamos conseguido pruebas irrefutables para entonces, a veces nos dábamos otras 24 horas. En el mundo digital de hoy, hay mucha presión por apretar el botón en cuanto cualquier historia sin solidez alguna se pasea por nuestra cronología de Twitter. Y la prisa por publicar se traduce en historias verdes, fotos anticuadas y errores fácticos en webs que ya se lo tendrían que saber. La ironía es que verificar datos nunca ha sido tan fácil. Mi equipo solía ir todos los días a nuestra biblioteca a consultar Dod’s Parliamentary Companion (el libro anual con las biografías y datos de contacto de los miembros del parlamento), Bartholomew’s Gazetteer (referencia vital para datos topográficos) y nuestros propios recortes. Ahora se puede comprobar casi todo en internet. ¿Por qué no lo hacemos? Como muestra Spotlight, la oscarizada película de Hollywood sobre el periodismo de investigación, buscar las fuentes, comprobar y volver a comprobar es la base para descubrir si puede demostrarse una noticia. En un mundo de noticias las 24 horas y todo digital, no deberíamos olvidar las técnicas de toda la vida. A saber:
1 Sospecha de todo. No te fíes de nada. Comprueba si hay intereses velados. No confíes en nadie, ni siquiera en un buen contacto.
2 Tu labor es confirmar cosas. Si no puedes, vuelve a intentarlo. Si te resulta imposible, no lo publiques.
3 Siempre acude a las fuentes principales. Pregúntale al jefe de policía si lo han suspendido. Pregúntale al director de autoridad. Si no quieren hablar, encuentra a los miembros del comité: a todos. Cuando asesinaron a mi vecino, el periódico local lo sacó en primera plana y estaban tres cosas mal. Nadie del periódico había llamado a la familia (ni a mí, ya puestos). Nadie se había molestado en hacer el esfuerzo. Una vergüenza.
4 Cumple la regla de las dos fuentes. Verifica todo a través de dos fuentes fiables como mínimo. Al poder ser, que conste en acta.
5 Sírvete de expertos. Hay universidades, académicos, especialistas que pueden avisar si falta credibilidad. Además, los expertos conocen a otros expertos.
6 Todas las historias dejan un rastro de papel. Siguen existiendo archivos (prueba con LexisNexis), documentos judiciales, Company House, Tracesmart. ¿Alguien ha cometido el mismo error en el pasado?
7 Pregúntate a ti mismo las cuestiones clave. ¿Qué más puedo mirar? ¿Con quién más puedo hablar? ¿Está equilibrado? ¿Escribí primero el titular y forcé el cuerpo de la noticia para que encajase?
8 Asegúrate de que los lectores entienden qué es opinión y qué es un hecho constatado. Y esto incluye el titular.
9 Preocúpate por las pequeñeces. Fechas, ortografía, nombres, cifras, estadísticas. No te olvides de quién, qué, dónde, cuándo, cómo y por qué.
10 Evalúa los riesgos. Hay veces en las que, pese al riguroso proceso de comprobarlo todo, una noticia puede quedarse al 99%. Si el instinto y el interés público te dictan que publiques, pásaselo al editor o editora. Para eso le pagan. Y, si has seguido las otras nueve reglas religiosamente, con suerte no tendrá que hacerte la pregunta clave.
Peter Sands es exdirector del diario británico Northern Echo y dirige la consultoría de comunicación Sands Media Services
Traducción de Arrate Hidalgo
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El proceso se complica en el caso de los vídeos, ya que contrastar cada fotograma de un vídeo con cada uno de los fotogramas de todos los vídeos de una base de datos requiere los niveles de cálculo numérico de un superordenador. Una alternativa es coger la imagen del thumbnail y utilizarla en una búsqueda de imágenes invertida: puede que así salgan otros vídeos que contengan la misma imagen. Si no, otro método que puede dar resultados es buscar las palabras clave asociadas a tu vídeo en plataformas de contenido audiovisual.
Así pues, con paciencia y las herramientas adecuadas, por lo general no es imposible decidir si una imagen o vídeo, nuevos en apariencia, son reciclados. Lo que ya es más difícil es determinar si las imágenes que son nuevas muestran realmente lo que dicen mostrar. Por supuesto, dar con la persona que subió la imagen y hablar con ella directamente es la forma más segura de obtener la información correcta; lo ideal es que te envíen el archivo original.
Si lo anterior falla, merece la pena recordar que todas las cámaras digitales incluyen metadatos en sus archivos fotográficos, entre los que se incluyen las coordenadas GPS, la hora en la que se sacó la imagen y el tipo de cámara utilizado; todas ellas, pistas vitales en nuestra investigación. A menudo estos detalles se pueden ver subiendo la imagen a una página gratuita como Keffrey’s Exif Viewer (Exif, que significa exchangeable image file format, es el nombre técnico de estos metadatos). Por desgracia, los vídeos no incluyen ningún dato de este tipo, y las redes sociales eliminan los metadatos por completo, de modo que una imagen que haya pasado por Facebook, Twitter y demás ofrecerá poca información. En estos casos, harán falta técnicas más creativas.
Pese a que consume mucho tiempo, buscar las correspondencias entre las ubicaciones de vídeos e informes y las imágenes por satélite facilita a menudo las pruebas de ubicación más claras de todas. Una noticia reciente lo ilustra claramente: las fuerzas rusas empezaron a bombardear zonas de Siria a finales de septiembre, después de que el presidente Bashar Assad solicitase formalmente su asistencia en su enfrentamiento con grupos rebeldes y yihadistas. Poco después, el ministro de defensa ruso comenzó a publicar vídeos de los bombardeos (capturados por los bombarderos cuando arrojaban su carga) en su canal de YouTube.
Según el gobierno ruso, los ataques aéreos alcanzaban objetivos pertenecientes al Estado Islámico. Pero al recibir informes desde el terreno de que la mayoría de los bombardeos tenían como objetivo grupos no involucrados con el EI, varios voluntarios y periodistas de la página de código abierto Bellingcat decidieron investigar. Tras comparar los vídeos del ministerio con las imágenes por satélite de los lugares que afirmaban mostrar, descubrieron que solo podían confirmar el 25% de los ataques que decían haber alcanzado el lugar supuesto, y que la mayoría de los objetivos ni siquiera eran posiciones del EI. El resto había alcanzado territorios controlados por otros grupos, respondiendo a la petición de Assad de apoyo militar en el país.
Sin embargo, la mayoría de las fotos tomadas por testigos se hacen a la altura del suelo, así que los servicios «Street view» de mapas web como los de Google o Yandex juegan un papel vital en la verificación de imágenes. Gracias a la identificación de señales y referencias en una foto o un vídeo, muchas organizaciones informativas han podido reducir la lista de ubicaciones posibles hasta lograr una coincidencia. Es crucial contar con informes e imágenes que lo corroboren, para lo que vienen bien herramientas como Yomapic, que muestra fotos con etiquetas geográficas sacadas de webs de redes sociales en ubicaciones de todo el mundo.
Determinar que una foto o un vídeo se tomó en el momento que asegura la fuente es otro problema, pero uno que que las nuevas tecnologías digitales también pueden ayudar a solventar. Los mejores indicadores temporales los suministra la propia naturaleza: el tiempo atmosférico y el ángulo del sol. Muchos sostienen que el vuelo MH17 fue derribado en julio de 2014 por un misil Buk ruso. Fuentes online han facilitado fotos y vídeos de un Buk, asegurando que las habían sacado en la ciudad ucraniana de Zuhres, a unos 30 kilómetros del lugar donde se estrelló el avión ese mismo día. Los mapas y las referencias visuales demuestran que el vídeo es de Zuhres, ¿pero cómo se puede demostrar de cuándo es?
La web Wolfram Alpha guarda, entre otras muchas cosas, datos históricos del tiempo meteorológico de todas las ubicaciones del mundo. Bellingcat investigó los datos correspondientes a Zuhres en el momento del accidente: coincidía con las condiciones meteorológicas de las fotos. Luego acudieron a Suncalc, una herramienta online que muestra el ángulo del sol —y, por lo tanto, las sombras— de cualquier ubicación del mundo en cualquier momento. Una vez más, los datos se correspondían con las imágenes. Aunque no se trata de pruebas irrefutables, Bellingcat reconstruyó los hechos con la garantía suficiente para alegar que había un lanzador de misiles Buk en ese momento y lugar concreto.
La proliferación de los smartphones, las redes sociales y la conectividad online han producido nuevos recursos de gran potencia para verificar datos. También ofrecen una amplitud sin precedentes a la expansión de las mentiras y la propaganda. A medida que las posibilidades de desinformación se multiplican, es más importante que nunca que los periodistas, así como el público en general, den buen uso a sus habilidades analíticas y de verificación antes de fiarse de las noticias que les cuentan.
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Alastair Reid es editor jefe de First Draft, una coalición de organizaciones que trabajan con redes sociales y periodismo, y se especializa en la recopilación y verificación de noticias online. Para más información, visita firstdraftnews.com
This article originally appeared in the spring 2016 issue of Index on Censorship magazine
Traducción de Arrate Hidalgo
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”Staging Shakespearean dissent” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2F2016%2F02%2Fstaging-shakespearean-dissent%2F|||”][vc_column_text]This year brings the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare’s death and Index on Censorship is marking it with a special issue of our award-winning magazine, looking at how his plays have been used around the world to sneak past censors or take on the authorities – often without them realising. Our special report explores how different countries use different plays to tackle difficult theme
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19 Apr 18 | Awards, News and features
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Each year, the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards gala honours courageous champions who fight for free speech around the world.
Drawn from more than 400 crowdsourced nominations, this year’s nominees include artists, journalists, campaigners and digital activists tackling censorship and fighting for freedom of expression. Many of the 16 shortlisted are regularly targeted by authorities or by criminal and extremist groups for their work: some face regular death threats, others criminal prosecution.
The gala takes place on Thursday 19 April in London and will be hosted by stand-up poet Kate Fox.
We will be live tweeting throughout the evening on @IndexCensorship. Get involved in the conversation using the hashtag #IndexAwards2018. Listen LIVE beginning at 7:30pm BST on Resonance FM
Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards nominees 2018
Arts
Jamal Ali, Azerbaijan
Jamal Ali is an exiled rap musician with a history of challenging Azerbaijan’s authoritarian regime. Ali was one of many who took to the streets in 2012 to protest spending around the country’s hosting of the Eurovision song contest. Detained and tortured for his role in the protests, he went into exile after his life was threatened. Ali has persisted in challenging the government by releasing music critical of the country’s dynastic leadership. Following the release of one song, Ali’s mother was arrested in a senseless display of aggression. In provoking such a harsh response with a single action, Ali has highlighted the repressive nature of the regime and its ruthless desire to silence all dissent.
Full profile
Silvanos Mudzvova, Zimbabwe
Playwright and activist Silvanos Mudzvova uses performance to protest against the repressive regime of recently toppled President Robert Mugabe and to agitate for greater democracy and rights for his country’s LGBT community. Mudzvova specialises in performing so-called “hit-and-run” actions in public places to grab the attention of politicians and defy censorship laws, which forbid public performances without police clearance. His activism has seen him be traumatically abducted: taken at gunpoint from his home he was viciously tortured with electric shocks. Nonetheless, Mudzvova has resolved to finish what he’s started and has been vociferous about the recent political change in Zimbabwe.
Full profile
The Museum of Dissidence, Cuba
The Museum of Dissidence is a public art project and website celebrating dissent in Cuba. Set up in 2016 by acclaimed artist Luis Manuel Otero Alcántara and curator Yanelys Nuñez Leyva, their aim is to reclaim the word “dissident” and give it a positive meaning in Cuba. The museum organises radical public art projects and installations, concentrated in the poorer districts of Havana. Their fearlessness in opening dialogues and inhabiting public space has led to fierce repercussions: Nuñez was sacked from her job and Otero arrested and threatened with prison for being a “counter-revolutionary.” Despite this, they persist in challenging Cuba’s restrictions on expression.
Full profile
Abbad Yahya, Palestine
Abbad Yahya is a Palestinian author whose novel, Crime in Ramallah, was banned by the Palestinian Authority in 2017. The book tackles taboo issues such as homosexuality, fanaticism and religious extremism. It provoked a rapid official response and all copies of the book were seized. The public prosecutor issued a summons for questioning against Yahya while the distributor of the novel was arrested and interrogated. Yahya also received threats and copies of the book were burned. Despite this, he has spent the last year raising awareness of freedom of expression and the lives of young people in the West Bank and Gaza, particularly in relation to their sexuality.
Full profile
Campaigning
Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms, Egypt
The Egyptian Commission for Rights and Freedoms is one of the few human rights organisations still operating in a country which has waged an orchestrated campaign against independent civil society groups. Egypt is becoming increasingly hostile to dissent, but ECRF continues to provide advocacy, legal support and campaign coordination, drawing attention to the many ongoing human rights abuses under the autocratic rule of President Abdel Fattah-el-Sisi. Their work has seen them subject to state harassment, their headquarters have been raided and staff members arrested. ECRF are committed to carrying on with their work regardless of the challenges.
Full profile
National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission, Kenya
The National Gay and Lesbian Human Rights Commission is the only organisation in Kenya challenging and preventing LGBTI discrimination through the country’s courts. Even though homosexuality isn’t illegal in Kenya, homosexual acts are. Homophobia is commonplace and men who have sex with men can be punished by up to 14 years in prison, and while no specific laws relate to women, former Prime Minister Raila Odinga has said lesbians should also be imprisoned. NGLHRC has had an impact by successfully lobbying MPs to scrap a proposed anti-homosexuality bill and winning agreement from the Kenya Medical Association to stop forced anal examination of clients.
Full profile
Open Stadiums, Iran
The women behind Open Stadiums risk their lives to assert a woman’s right to attend public sporting events in Iran. The campaign challenges the country’s political and religious regime, and engages women in an issue many human rights activists have previously thought unimportant. Iranian women face many restrictions on using public space. Open Stadiums has generated broad support for their cause in and out of the country. As a result, MPs and people in power are beginning to talk about women’s rights to attend sporting events in a way that would have been taboo before.
Full profile
Team 29, Russia
Team 29 is an association of lawyers and journalists that defends those targeted by the state for exercising their right to freedom of speech in Russia. It is crucial work in a climate where hundreds of civil society organisations have been forced to close and where increasingly tight restrictions have been placed on public protest and political dissent since mass demonstrations rocked Russia in 2012. Team 29 conducts about 50 court cases annually, many involving accusations of high treason. Aside from litigation, they offer legal guides for activists and advice on what to do when summoned by state security for interrogation.
Full profile
Digital Activism
Digital Rights Foundation, Pakistan
In late 2016, the Digital Rights Foundation established a cyber-harassment helpline that supported more than a thousand women in its first year of operation alone. Women make up only about a quarter of the online population in Pakistan but routinely face intense bullying including the use of revenge porn, blackmail, and other kinds of harassment. Often afraid to report how badly they are treated, women react by withdrawing from online spaces. To counter this, DRF’s Cyber Harassment Helpline team includes a qualified psychologist, digital security expert, and trained lawyer, all of whom provide specialised assistance.
Full profile
Fereshteh Forough, Afghanistan
Fereshteh Forough is the founder and executive director of Code to Inspire, a coding school for girls in Afghanistan. Founded in 2015, this innovative project helps women and girls learn computer programming with the aim of tapping into commercial opportunities online and fostering economic independence in a country that remains a highly patriarchal and conservative society. Forough believes that with programming skills, an internet connection and using bitcoin for currency, Afghan women can not only create wealth but challenge gender roles and gain independence.
Full profile
Habari RDC, Congo
Launched in 2016, Habari RDC is a collective of more than 100 young Congolese bloggers and web activists, who use Facebook, Twitter and YouTube to give voice to the opinions of young people from all over the Democratic Republic of Congo. Their site posts stories and cartoons about politics, but it also covers football, the arts and subjects such as domestic violence, child exploitation, the female orgasm and sexual harassment at work. Habari RDC offers a distinctive collection of funny, angry and modern Congolese voices, who are demanding to be heard.
Full profile
Mèdia.cat, Spain
Mèdia.cat is a Catalan website devoted to highlighting media freedom violations and investigating under-reported stories. Unique in Spain, it was a particularly significant player in 2017 when the disputed independence referendum brought issues of censorship and the impartiality of news under the spotlight. The website provides an online platform that systematically catalogues censorship perpetrated in the region. Its map on censorship offers a way for journalists to report on abuses they have personally suffered.
Journalism
Avispa Midia, Mexico
Avispa Midia is an independent online magazine that prides itself on its use of multimedia techniques to bring alive the political, economic and social worlds of Mexico and Latin America. It specialises in investigations into organised crime and the paramilitaries behind mining mega-projects, hydroelectric dams and the wind and oil industry. Many of Avispa’s reports in the last 12 months have been focused on Mexico and Central America, where the media group has helped indigenous and marginalised communities report on their own stories through audio and video training.
Wendy Funes, Honduras
Wendy Funes is an investigative journalist from Honduras who regularly risks her life for her right to report on what is happening in the country, an extremely harsh environment for reporters. Two journalists were murdered in 2017 and her father and friends are among those who have met violent deaths in the country – killings for which no one has ever been brought to justice. Funes meets these challenges with creativity and determination. For one article she had her own death certificate issued to highlight corruption. Funes also writes about violence against women, a huge problem in Honduras where one woman is killed every 16 hours.
MuckRock, United States
MuckRock is a non-profit news site used by journalists, activists and members of the public to request and share US government documents in pursuit of more transparency. MuckRock has shed light on government surveillance, censorship and police militarisation among other issues. MuckRock produces its own reporting, and helps others learn more about requesting information. Last year the site produced a Freedom of Information Act 4 Kidz lesson plan to help educators to start discussions about government transparency. Since then, they have expanded their reach to Canada. The organisation hopes to continue increasing their impact by putting transparency tools in the hands of journalists, researchers and ordinary citizens.
Novosti, Croatia
Novosti is a weekly Serbian-language magazine in Croatia. Although fully funded as a Serb minority publication by the Serbian National Council, it deals with a whole range of topics, not only those directly related to the minority status of Croatian Serbs. In the past year, the outlet’s journalists have faced attacks and death threats mainly from the ultra-conservative far-right. For its reporting, the staff of Novosti have been met with protest under the windows of the magazine’s offices shouting fascist slogans and anti-Serbian insults, and told they would end up killed like Charlie Hebdo journalists. Despite the pressure, the weekly persists in writing the truth and defending freedom of expression.[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_basic_grid post_type=”post” max_items=”12″ style=”load-more” items_per_page=”4″ element_width=”6″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1524073803130-58a2be32-5f5a-7″ taxonomies=”8935″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
03 Apr 18 | News and features, Volume 47.01 Spring 2018
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Michelle Dockery stars in Netflix’s Godless, a new show featuring the rarely seen female pioneer, Ursula Coyote/Netflix
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Netflix’s new hit show, Godless, is set in a 19th century western USA town run by women. La Belle, New Mexico, has experienced a mining tragedy, killing most of the men and putting women in charge. The cowboys are almost gone and in their place we see women brandishing guns and riding horses.
Godless turns the traditional male-dominated Western genre on its head. It has focused attention on the forgotten women who rolled across the western plains. The storyline may be fictional, but strong pioneer women playing a major part in running these frontier towns is more true to life. But often this side of the history of the west was ignored.
The term “pioneer” refers to anyone who ventured into, and settled, new lands in the USA. Starting in Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607, people moved into the country’s interior and, finally, to the west coast. This history of westward exploration has been told mostly from a male angle. Western landscapes are represented by heroic men on horseback: cowboys, cavalry officers, sharpshooting sheriffs and notorious outlaws.
“In films like Shane and other Westerns, women lack real decision-making authority, and ethnic or racial women appear as prostitutes or bad influences, if they appear at all,” said Laura Woodworth-Ney, executive vice-president and provost of Idaho State University and author of Women and the American West.
It’s definitely a case of his-story, not her-story.
In response to this, the Pioneer Woman Museum in Oklahoma was born.
“I don’t remember learning anything about these women when I was at school in the 1980s, and from the visitors we get at the museum, I don’t think student textbooks are any different today. We need to change that story,” said museum director Kelly Houston. “There were many single and widowed women who went west, but they are largely ignored by history.”
For example, after the Homestead Act of 1862, people raced to claim 160 acres of free public land. Among the biggest of these land races or “runs” in Oklahoma was the one in 1893 when more than 100,000 people showed up.
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/4″][vc_icon icon_fontawesome=”fa fa-quote-left” color=”custom” align=”right” custom_color=”#dd3333″][/vc_column][vc_column width=”3/4″][vc_custom_heading text=”There were many single and widowed women who went west, but they are largely ignored by history” google_fonts=”font_family:Libre%20Baskerville%3Aregular%2Citalic%2C700|font_style:400%20italic%3A400%3Aitalic”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]
“Widowed or single women could take part if they were over 21. The land runs were extremely competitive and arduous. You had to line up for days, including overnight,” said Houston.
Once a starting gun was fired, people sprinted to a free lot and literally staked a claim. They then had to go to the land registry office to have it signed into their name.
“Not many people realise that women were doing this,” Houston explained.
There were other ways in which pioneer women were key to the development of new towns.
“In Oklahoma, they were the movers and shakers of society, forming clubs and organisations. They are the ones improving school lunches, starting libraries, raising money and so on, and that often gets ignored. They also set up businesses like laundries, shops and cafes,” said Houston.
Something else that gets forgotten is the vital economic role women played in the home.
“In many cases, they were vitally important to their family’s survival through the side-businesses that they ran: raising and selling chickens, making butter, taking in mending. That income could literally save a family in a bad winter if a crop failed,” Houston explained.
A lack of historical sources is a major problem in piecing together a true picture of 19th century pioneer women, explained Woodworth-Ney. “Most working-class women were illiterate at this time, and for many minority women English was not their first language. Apart from that, they would have been too busy working to write anything down. We do have some diaries and letters from lower-middle-class and educated women, including some on the Oregon Trail. In the past 20 years, women historians have been active in shining a light on these, but they are still not readily available.
“They are hard to find because of the cataloguing practices of the late 19th and early 20th centuries when items would have been filed in the archives under the husband’s name and things like diaries and letters would have been filed in the ‘family’ section of his papers and were considered far less important. So this is not so much an intentional type of censorship, but it was hiding these women.”
Elizabeth Gillan Muir, a Toronto-based author and retired lecturer, addresses some of the reasons why pioneer women preachers have been left out of history in her upcoming book, A Women’s History of Christianity. Religion was the cornerstone of life in 19th century USA, and in the great westward expansion more than 100 women preachers travelled to new towns to help “civilise” these unregulated, and often wild, frontier communities.
Although travelling evangelists were perhaps less of a problem than women preaching from the pulpit, men still saw women as a real threat in this situation,” said Muir.
“For the most part, I think why we don’t hear about these pioneer woman preachers is that when they died, their obituaries omitted any reference to preaching activity. Pliny the Elder, writing in the first century AD, said that information about women doctors was intentionally hidden so that, after they died, no one would ever know that they had lived. This is a similar thing, erasing women preachers from history.”
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This article is a web special ahead of the launch of the special report in Index on Censorship‘s spring 2018 issue, The Abuse of History, focusing on how history is being manipulated or censored by governments and other powers.
Look out for the new edition in bookshops
Jan Fox is the US contributing editor for Index on Censorship
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”From the Archives”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”70877″ img_size=”213×287″ alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229108535157″][vc_custom_heading text=”Fear and loathing in San Francisco ” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1080%2F03064229108535157|||”][vc_column_text]July 1991
The law of the gun rules in Cyberspace as it did in the days of America’s ‘Wild West‘, according to American poet and internet activist John Perry Barlow in 1991[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”90649″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064220008536796″][vc_custom_heading text=”Women as censors” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422013495334|||”][vc_column_text]September 2000
Mark Kenny looks at how women’s self-censorship has a long, and in most cases, honourable history[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”90965″ img_size=”full” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”http://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1080/03064229308535477″][vc_custom_heading text=”Portrait of a much abused lady” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:http%3A%2F%2Fjournals.sagepub.com%2Fdoi%2Fpdf%2F10.1177%2F0306422013513103|||”][vc_column_text]January 1993
The politically correct establishment is coopting the feminist discourse to turn it back on the radicals says Marjorie Heins[/vc_column_text][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_separator][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row content_placement=”top”][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_custom_heading text=”The abuse of history” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2F2018%2F04%2Fthe-abuse-of-history%2F|||”][vc_column_text]The spring 2018 issue of Index on Censorship magazine takes a special look at how governments and other powers across the globe are manipulating history for their own ends
With: Simon Callow, David Anderson, Omar Mohammed [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][vc_single_image image=”99282″ img_size=”medium” alignment=”center” onclick=”custom_link” link=”https://www.indexoncensorship.org/2018/04/the-abuse-of-history/”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″ css=”.vc_custom_1481888488328{padding-bottom: 50px !important;}”][vc_custom_heading text=”Subscribe” font_container=”tag:p|font_size:24|text_align:left” link=”url:https%3A%2F%2Fwww.indexoncensorship.org%2Fsubscribe%2F|||”][vc_column_text]In print, online. In your mailbox, on your iPad.
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19 Feb 18 | Global Journalist, Media Freedom, Mexico, News and features, United States
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text]This article is part of Index on Censorship partner Global Journalist’s Project Exile series, which has published interviews with exiled journalists from around the world.[/vc_column_text][vc_column_text]
Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco
The men from the Sinaloa cartel had made a mistake, and now they were looking to use it to their advantage.
It was July 2010, and Mexican television cameraman Alejandro Hernandez Pacheco and a colleague had been covering a riot at a prison in the town of Gómez Palacio in Durango state in northwestern Mexico. As they drove away from the prison, their car was stopped by Sinaloa gunmen, who mistook the two journalists for members of the rival Zetas cartel.
At the time, the Sinaloa cartel, led by the infamous drug lord Joaquín “El Chapo” Guzmán, were in the midst of a bloody battle for trafficking routes in northern Mexico. In 2010 alone, more than 15,000 people would die in Mexico’s drug wars. In Hernandez’s nearby home city of Torréon, where he worked for a local Televisa station, there were 990 homicides in 2011, up from 62 five years earlier, according to Reuters.
The Sinaloa men forced Hernandez and a colleague out of the car and into the trunk.
“They told us they were going to kill us because they thought we worked for the other cartel,” says Hernandez, in an interview with Global Journalist. “We told them we worked for Televisa and showed them our phones, equipment, microphones and everything. And they saw we were telling the truth.”
That didn’t mean they were safe. For days, Hernandez and two other kidnapped journalists were shuttled from a series of Sinaloa safehouses, where they were beaten and threatened with death. Héctor Gordoa, a Mexico City-based Televisa reporter who had been working with Hernandez, was released on the condition that he file a report detailing collaboration between government officials and Sinaloa cartel’s rivals, the Zetas. Hernandez and fellow journalist Javier Canales were kept by the cartel as hostages.
When Televisa refused to air Gordoa’s report, some feared Hernandez and Canales would be killed. Instead, they were released. According to Gordoa, the cartel had determined that killing journalists would do them more harm than good.
As for Hernandez, he and his family fled to the U.S., where was granted asylum in 2011. Now working as a cameraman in Colorado, he spoke with Global Journalist’s Astrig Agopian through a translator about his kidnapping and flight. Below, an edited version of their interview:
Global Journalist: How did the cartels affect you as a journalist before you were kidnapped?
Hernandez: It was good and normal before the war between the narcos started about ten years ago. Torréon was a small town in a peaceful region. But in 2007 the violence arrived there. There were a lot of narcos, but there was no problem because the people did not mess with them and they did not mess with the people. But another cartel, the Zetas, arrived from the northeast of the country.
Then the war started between them and El Chapo’s band, the Sinaloa cartel. There started being murders, abductions, kidnappings…and that is when the fear started spreading in the population. There were killings everyday. Murders with a lot of sadism. It was not like just a bullet in the head, people were beheaded or they would take their eyes out.
GJ: How did the media you worked for cover this?
Hernandez: At the beginning, everything was okay. We would cover the assassinations and not include the names of the team who worked on the story to protect them. We started to get used to the reign of the narcos, the war, all the dead.
The problems started in 2009 when a colleague from a newspaper, Eliseo Barron, was kidnapped and killed. He was a police reporter for a newspaper in Torréon. We knew the narcos did it, but we didn’t know which group.
There were killings outside of television stations and newspapers. They used “mantas,” which are pieces of tissue where it was written that what happened to Eliseo will happen to others too if they don’t keep silent. So then many journalists started being scared.
GJ: What story were you working on when you were kidnapped?
Hernandez: A journalist came from Mexico City who worked for the [national] program “Punto de Partida,” or “Starting Point.” The host of the program sent people to Torréon to cover the narcos. The reporter [Héctor Gordoa] arrived, but without a cameraman because he missed the flight. He came to ask for help from the Televisa station where I worked. They asked me to go with him.
Our intention was to interview the mayors of the three cities: Lergo, Durango, Gomez Palacio, Durango and Torréon. The mayor of Gomez Palacio took a long time to receive us. When we left him, we were told that there was a riot in the CEFERESO [a federal prison].
We decided to go to the jail and do interviews. There were many relatives of the prisoners there, because there were reports of shots fired inside and they were crying and there was a lot of security. But with all the army and the security we felt safe.
When we [Hernandez and Gordoa] left the area, it was like 3 p.m. and two miles ahead, at a traffic light, we were intercepted by a car and some guys got out with guns and got in our car. They put me and my colleague in the trunk.
GJ: What happened next?
Hernandez: They told us they were going to kill us because they thought we worked for the other cartel [the Zetas]. We told them we worked for Televisa and showed them our phones, equipment, microphones and everything. And they saw we were telling the truth.
They still said they would kill us. They covered our eyes with cloth and tied our hands and feet. Then they put us in a truck and made some telephone calls. I don’t know if they were calling El Chapo or whoever.
On the Monday [July 26, 2010] when they took us, they called Televisa and told them that they had us and they would kill us if the network continued to publish stories about them. They said they wanted us to do a video for YouTube in which we would incriminate the Zetas with the [state] government of Coahuila.
We did a 15-minute video on Tuesday and Televisa broadcast it late at night..At this point, nobody knew we were hostages besides my family, the other’s families and Televisa.
GJ: So they used you to try to blackmail Televisa into broadcasting reports that would hurt a rival cartel?
Hernandez: On Wednesday, they wanted us to record another report [implicating the Zetas with additional government officials]. But Televisa refused, saying: ‘We won’t be responsible if something happens to them, because we [the network] cannot continue to be hostages of the narcos.’
The police were supposedly looking for us. We expected them to rescue us. They kept us in a room 4 meters by 4 meters. There were us three journalists, three kidnapped policeman, and a taxi driver. We were seven total. It was the summer and it was so hot. They gave us some water but nothing to eat. If you wanted to sleep or sit you had to ask for permission. We could not go to a bathroom, we had a paint bottle and that’s it.
They psychologically tortured us because they were saying they would kill us. If [narcos] kill you during the day, they will leave your body outside. But if not, they hide your body.
What I really hoped, what I prayed for was that if they killed me, they would leave my body in sight so that people would find me and recognize me and that way I would not be a ‘desaparecido.’ That is so much worse for the families, worse than them knowing that you are dead.
We were very tired but we could not sleep at night because we were afraid they would take us and kill us.
GJ: How were you released?
Hernandez: The journalist from Mexico City [Héctor Gordoa] was released on Thursday [July 29, 2010]. They took us [Canales and Hernandez] to another safehouse. We were fragile like drunk people because we did not have food or enough water for days. We had no energy. They put us in a dark, abandoned room like a bathroom. It was dark, but I remember that there were cockroaches and animals there.
It was the middle of the night and we just wanted them to kill us because we were so tired of all the uncertainty. One moment they wanted to kill us, then they didn’t, then they did again.
We started screaming because there were neighbors. We shouted: “We want water! We want water!”
We tried to escape, tried to open the door. Someone arrived with a truck, and they started beating us. All the things they had not done the days before, they did that night. They bound us with wire by our hands and feet.
After the beating, they treated us very well. They gave us water and we were taken to yet another safehouse on Friday night. But there was blood all over the room where we were taken. There was a scalp. We thought that is where they tortured and killed people.
There was a person taking care of us, who even gave us water…a gallon of water for each of us. I told myself: ‘I want to escape, I’m not going to let them just kill me.”
But I didn’t succeed. I was at peace though because at least I tried. That was the moment when I could finally sleep. I do not know how many hours.
At that time, the government and El Chapo’s cartel must have been in talks [to arrange our release]. Next, they took us back to the safehouse where we had been earlier. The federal police were already there. It seemed they were there to pretend it was a rescue – I don’t know if the narcos were late bringing us back or the police came early. [When we were handed over] the police said: “Oh that’s you guys! Where were you detained? How are you?”
It was like a movie. We were free.
The police took us to do a press conference in Mexico City. They said they had rescued us and that there had been no shooting, and that the narcos did not do anything to us and that they released us because [the government] asked them to.
GJ: How did you decide to go to the U.S.?
Hernandez: They released me [Saturday July 31, 2010] and the police took me to Mexico City. I spent about 20 days total in Mexico City with my family.
The police caught some suspects. It was actually the ones who held us as prisoners. We went and identified them. But you know for drug traffickers, the guys with the guns are just soldiers. The boss turned them over.
During that time, I made calls to El Paso, Texas where I have family. They put me in touch with a great lawyer, who saved my life. I talked with my wife and lawyer and we decided not go back to Torréon. I took a truck, then a bus, then I walked.
I crossed the border on Aug. 22 to Texas with a tourist visa and then started the process to get political asylum. On Aug. 23, [the Sinaloa cartel] started looking for me. On Aug. 24, my wife crossed with our small children. We only took a small bag with clothes for the children and a folder with all the proof of what happened to me, pictures and articles in the newspapers. I asked for asylum in Houston.
GJ: How are things for you now?
Hernandez: Now I am a U.S. resident. I would love to be able to go back [to Torréon] but I cannot. I am angry at everyone, the police and the narcos, because my sons had to leave our home.
My children gave me a lot of courage. It was hard to arrive in another culture. My sons now go to school and speak English. When I arrived I worked at a local Spanish TV station in El Paso until 2015. Then I was offered a job in Colorado. Now I live there with my family and work as a cameraman. I am very grateful to this country because I arrived with a small suitcase and now we have a house, I have opportunity here.
With translation by Maria F. Callejon[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_video link=”https://youtu.be/tOxGaGKy6fo”][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship partner Global Journalist is a website that features global press freedom and international news stories as well as a weekly radio program that airs on KBIA, mid-Missouri’s NPR affiliate, and partner stations in six other states. The website and radio show are produced jointly by professional staff and student journalists at the University of Missouri’s School of Journalism, the oldest school of journalism in the United States. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”Don’t lose your voice. Stay informed.” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_separator color=”black”][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/2″][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship is a nonprofit that campaigns for and defends free expression worldwide. We publish work by censored writers and artists, promote debate, and monitor threats to free speech. We believe that everyone should be free to express themselves without fear of harm or persecution – no matter what their views.
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