23 Sep 10 | Americas, Mexico
“What do you want from us?”, El Diario de Juarez asked the two drug cartels fighting for control of Ciudad Juarez, one of the most important cities on the US-Mexico border. The front page editorial was a bold public display of the type of questions provincial journalists ask themselves every day when they are attacked by drug cartels. El Diario is the second largest newspaper in this border town, which was an industrial megacity, until it was brought to a halt by the drug war three years ago. The daily newspaper’s editorial came after two of its intern photographers were shot by gunmen, the attack left one dead and the other wounded. The attack was confusing as the two young journalists had recently started their positions. It was the second murder of a journalist working for El Diario in the last two years.
The editorial sparked a diatribe from the Mexican government. Government spokesman Alejandro Poire attacked the newspaper for promoting illegal accords with organised crime.
To make matters worse for the El Diario, it was fooled on Monday by an impostor pretending to be Cesar Nava, the head of the ruling Partido de Accion Nacional (PAN), who said he supported negotiating an end to violence with organised crime.
In Mexico, as in most of Latin America, most of the attacks against journalists occur in provincial cities, where they often go unpunished. Regional media organisations are often small, because they are not as powerful as the national media they are attacked with impunity. There is often an underlying mistrust between these two types of media — the provincial news outlets pay lower salaries and their journalists get less training. In some cases journalists hold multiple jobs, which can pose conflicts of interest.
Until recently, the divide between the Mexican provincial press and the press in the Distrito Federal, as Mexico’s capital city is called, was huge. Attacks against journalists in Mexico have been common for more than 20 years ago, but they often occurred on border cities. Although the divide has narrowed recently — especially since the kidnapping of four journalists including a national Televisa cameraman last July — there is still a significant gap.
In recent interviews I have held with provincial editors, they say they still fee “abandoned” by their colleagues in Mexico City. “Some of our colleagues in [the city] feel we are giving in too quickly,” said one editor in Veracruz, “but the truth is they do not know the dangers we face.” Carlos Marin, of the national daily Milenio, scalded El Diario in a column yesterday, calling for the newspaper to close its doors, rather than capitulate before organised crime. Some Mexico City based editors are more willing to understand the plight of the provincial media. Denise Maerker, a columnist and Televisa presenter, said that El Diario de Juarez’s question to drug cartels last week was simply a public display of what is happening across Mexico. In her column in yesterday’s El Universal, she said that these pacts have been going on silently in the country. “Let’s not leave them alone”, she implored.
The issue underlying the entire debate over El Diario’s decision is the reality that more people in Mexico are questioning the drug war and are debating whether Mexico should negotiate with the drug cartels.
17 Sep 10 | Uncategorized
A battle is brewing between two Mexican media giants: Grupo Reforma and the television network Televisa. This might seem to be a debate about ethics, but it is not what it appears to be.
About a week ago, Televisa, the second largest media group in Latin America, launched a series of news stories describing how Grupo Reforma, one of Mexico’s most respected newspaper empires, published advertisements for sex services which contributed to the trafficking of women in Mexico. The stories were broadcast on Televisa’s nightly programme, which has the highest ratings in the country — 40 million viewers, according to some media commentators. The issue of publishing sex ads in the national media is an ethical debate that should probably be brought to the fore in Mexico. According to the International Organisation for Migration, Mexico has a serious problem with woman-trafficking networks, which are run by drug-trafficking groups. But the odd thing about the Televisa story is that it never mentioned the other half a dozen Mexican tabloids which publish nude centrefolds in the style of British tabloids, as well as pages of “sex for hire” ads, which are often more graphic than those found in Reforma.
Since the first stories appeared, the question of what lies behind the media feud has been swirling around Mexico. The most credible explanation, mentioned by a number of columnists, is that the fight started when Reforma published a business story accusing Televisa of receiving special government treatment in the allocation of a lucrative mobile phone contract with communications giant Nextel. A former telecommunications government official also claimed that Televisa was given a good deal. The contract gave Televisa and Nextel the right to enter so-called “quadruple play”, which combines broadband Internet access, television and telephone, with wireless service provisions, at a price 28 times less than the expected cost, according to some news accounts.
In response to the accusation, Televisa demanded that Reforma publish a lengthy letter, which the newspaper refused to do. And so the battle began.
This kind of row is what gets in the way of media collaboration on issues such as press freedom. Recently, Televisa and other media executives sat down for the first time to discuss joint measures to protect the press in Mexico. Reforma, however, did not participate in the meetings — one of its executives said it did not like to mix with other news media executives. The Reforma conglomerate is known for revolutionising Mexican media in the 1990s when it launched its newspaper, also called Reforma, in Mexico City. The paper was the first to include all political views at a time when subversion of the press by those in power was common. Since those heady days, Reforma has remained the centre right daily that is read mostly by Mexican elites. Like Reforma’s two other dailies, El Norte, in the industrial city of Monterrey, and Mural, in the city of Guadalajara, the newspaper is known for strict editorial guidelines.
Reforma´s publisher, Junco de la Vega, left Mexico two years ago for Austin, Texas, after the powerful Gulf Cartel, which has control of the east coast of Mexico, sent the newspaper a video detailing the daily routine of de la Vega’s entire family. Junco’s forced exit was never publicised by the other news media, and this apparent lack of sensitivity for attacks on other colleagues was a prelude to the dangerous situation now facing the entire media community in Mexico. Even de la Vega´s decision to abandon the country has been facetiously disparaged in some columns, which insinuate that de la Vega is a coward for leaving. Let’s hope this latest spat does not have a negative impact on recent advancements in co-operation shown by the media outlets facing attacks by drug cartels.
However, the way in which business interests can blindside the debate in Mexico is worrying. The stakes are high, nevertheless. Nextel is currently working on expanding its nationwide 3G wireless networks in Mexico. Televisa hopes to create an innovative communication platform by adding Nextel’s wireless and broadband services to its existing portfolio of pay-TV services, offering market-leading content and multiple distribution channels. Televisa controls 70 percent of the pay-TV market.
17 Sep 10 | Americas, Mexico
A battle is brewing between two Mexican media giants: Grupo Reforma and the television network Televisa. This might seem to be a debate about ethics, but it is not what it appears to be.
About a week ago, Televisa, the second largest media group in Latin America, launched a series of news stories describing how Grupo Reforma, one of Mexico’s most respected newspaper empires, published advertisements for sex services which contributed to the trafficking of women in Mexico. The stories were broadcast on Televisa’s nightly programme, which has the highest ratings in the country — 40 million viewers, according to some media commentators. The issue of publishing sex ads in the national media is an ethical debate that should probably be brought to the fore in Mexico. According to the International Organisation for Migration, Mexico has a serious problem with woman-trafficking networks, which are run by drug-trafficking groups. But the odd thing about the Televisa story is that it never mentioned the other half a dozen Mexican tabloids which publish nude centrefolds in the style of British tabloids, as well as pages of “sex for hire” ads, which are often more graphic than those found in Reforma.
Since the first stories appeared, the question of what lies behind the media feud has been swirling around Mexico. The most credible explanation, mentioned by a number of columnists, is that the fight started when Reforma published a business story accusing Televisa of receiving special government treatment in the allocation of a lucrative mobile phone contract with communications giant Nextel. A former telecommunications government official also claimed that Televisa was given a good deal. The contract gave Televisa and Nextel the right to enter so-called “quadruple play”, which combines broadband Internet access, television and telephone, with wireless service provisions, at a price 28 times less than the expected cost, according to some news accounts.
In response to the accusation, Televisa demanded that Reforma publish a lengthy letter, which the newspaper refused to do. And so the battle began.
This kind of row is what gets in the way of media collaboration on issues such as press freedom. Recently, Televisa and other media executives sat down for the first time to discuss joint measures to protect the press in Mexico. Reforma, however, did not participate in the meetings — one of its executives said it did not like to mix with other news media executives. The Reforma conglomerate is known for revolutionising Mexican media in the 1990s when it launched its newspaper, also called Reforma, in Mexico City. The paper was the first to include all political views at a time when subversion of the press by those in power was common. Since those heady days, Reforma has remained the centre right daily that is read mostly by Mexican elites. Like Reforma’s two other dailies, El Norte, in the industrial city of Monterrey, and Mural, in the city of Guadalajara, the newspaper is known for strict editorial guidelines.
Reforma´s publisher, Junco de la Vega, left Mexico two years ago for Austin, Texas, after the powerful Gulf Cartel, which has control of the east coast of Mexico, sent the newspaper a video detailing the daily routine of de la Vega’s entire family. Junco’s forced exit was never publicised by the other news media, and this apparent lack of sensitivity for attacks on other colleagues was a prelude to the dangerous situation now facing the entire media community in Mexico. Even de la Vega´s decision to abandon the country has been facetiously disparaged in some columns, which insinuate that de la Vega is a coward for leaving. Let’s hope this latest spat does not have a negative impact on recent advancements in co-operation shown by the media outlets facing attacks by drug cartels.
However, the way in which business interests can blindside the debate in Mexico is worrying. The stakes are high, nevertheless. Nextel is currently working on expanding its nationwide 3G wireless networks in Mexico. Televisa hopes to create an innovative communication platform by adding Nextel’s wireless and broadband services to its existing portfolio of pay-TV services, offering market-leading content and multiple distribution channels. Televisa controls 70 percent of the pay-TV market.
03 Sep 10 | Americas, Mexico
The visit by the two rappourteurs of freedom of expression from the Organisation of American States and the United Nations, Carolina Botero and Frank La Rue, two weeks ago, and a flurry of activity related to press freedom and the protection of journalists, seems to have injected a sense of purpose in a group of journalists in Mexico who are trying to find ways of creating policies that last beyond the headlines.
Experts like Roberto Rock, the former editor of the daily El Universal and a member of the Inter American Press Association´s press freedom committee believes there is an atmosphere that will allow Mexican media to “develop better coordination”. According to Rock the Mexican media is still feeling “raw” and will try to continue to find a way of coordinating responses to attacks against the press because of the kidnapping of four journalists last July.
It is a daunting task to figure out how to respond to the continuing attacks which, although not as severe as the July kidnapping, have continued throughout the country. Recently the main targets have been regional offices of the national television network Televisa.
Television is an important media in Mexico, reaching more than 60 percent of the Mexican public. At least four Televisa installations have been hit with bombs or grenades . The hits have occurred in the northeastern states of Nuevo Leon and Taumalipas, which are areas of operation of the drug trafficking groups Gulf Cartel (named after the Gulf of Mexico, where it was born) and the vicious Zetas Cartel, a former enforcement arm of the Gulf Cartel, but now operating on its own and waging a tight fight against its old partner. Those who read into reasons for the attacks and the fact they are occurring in the northeast say it could be an attempt by those cartels operating in that area to jump into the fray of attacking the country´s most important news organisation.
An attack on September 1 on the Noroeste newspaper in the northern Mexican state of Sinaloa was the backlash from the battle going on in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua, between two cartels, the Sinaloa Cartel and the Juarez Drug Cartel. Sinaloa has grown to be one of the most powerful drug gangs during the last six years. The group is challenging Juarez for control of the US-Mexico border
crossing in Juarez, which is among the profitable crossings because it links the Mexican territory with impressive road connections to five American cities important for drug trafficking networks, from Los Angeles in the west coast to New York in the east. The battle in Juarez has unsettled the press, with journalists basically enforcing self-censorship and setting up security precautions such as never arriving at a crime scene alone, because the killers might still be there. Or as they do at El Norte newspaper in that city, rotating reporters daily for the coverage of crime stories.
The attack in Sinaloa was by La Linea, the enforcement group for the Juarez Cartel. That they are going after the Noroeste, a respectable newspaper in Sinaloa, which is critical and tries to cover drug trafficking with various security measures, is worrisome, and opens up the question whether the Juarez Cartel wants to attack the Sinaloa Cartel in its home turf. That they started this incursion by attacking the press is even more disconcerting and could spell worst violence in the future.
The July kidnapping of four reporters was carried out by the Sinaloa Cartel, perhaps the most powerful drug group in Mexico, which operates in the western part of the country.
Some analysts say the attacks are probably a “local phenomenon” and not a uniform message. But in the mixed bag of drug cartel messages, which go from banners hanging from public bridges, to messages scribbled on cardboard and left pinned to the bodies of victims, everybody makes their own assessment.
The press is trying to face the situation with increased solidarity between the national press and the provincial news media. Two weeks ago, Televisa, and the national newspapers El Universal and Milenio published and broadcast a story on threats received by local journalists in the state of Zacatecas. The effort was similar to those carried out by Colombian media in the 1980s and 90s. Mexican media representatives are also discussing the implementation of other mechanisms of protection that worked in Colombia. The Colombian model included providing government paid bodyguards for threatened journalists, transferring reporters from provincial cities to the capital or foreign countries in case of death threats, and coordinated publishing and broadcasting of dangerous stories.
Those who are now feeling positive about the advances made in press freedom measure the changes with glee. Just a few months ago, it was difficult to put together in a room representatives from the major media networks and newspapers because of deep seated mistrust. The need to face the threat of the drug cartels has almost united a difficult group.
