4 May 2012 | Americas, Mexico
The bodies of three photographers from the city of Veracruz — Gabriel Huge, Gabriel Luna Varela, Guillermo Rodriguez— were found dismembered and dumped in local waterway as Mexicans celebrated World Press Freedom Day yesterday. The bodies showed signs of torture.
The Attorney General’s Office for the State of Veracruz reported that both Huge and Varela, who were freelance photographers, had been reported missing by their families yesterday. According to Laura Angelina Borbolla Moreno, Special Attorney General for crimes against freedom of expression, both Huge and Varela were among a list of eight journalists who had been identified as under threat from organised crime in Veracruz.
Just last weekend, neighbours discovered the body of Regina Martinez, a reporter for the political weekly magazine Proceso, in the Veracruz city of Xalapa. Martinez had been killed with heavy blows and strangulation. Days after her murder, the Mexican Congress passed a law protecting human rights workers and journalists.
An ongoing battle between the Zetas drug cartel and members of the Chapo Guzman Sinaloa Cartel has contributed to a spiral of violence and corruption: with the last three murders, eight reporters have been killed in the southern state of Veracruz since December 2010.
3 May 2012 | News and features
The last year has seen tumultuous shifts for media freedom. But core problems still remain in the world’s troublespots, says Padraig Reidy
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2 May 2012 | Mexico
Mexico’s Congress this week approved a law for the protection of human rights workers and journalists. The law requires that journalists and media outlets facing attacks because of their work should be offered protection.
The law was unanimously approved, perhaps as a result of the news that on 27 April, two days before the vote, journalist Regina Hernandez was found beaten and strangled in her home in the southern state of Veracruz.
In March, the murder of journalists was made a federal crime. State and municipal authorities are often suspected of being susceptible to pressure from organised crime groups or corrupt local officials. Most of the murders of journalists occur in the interior of Mexico, very often on the US border, where intense drug cartel wars have made the region one of the most dangerous in the world for reporters.
1 May 2012 | Africa, Index Index, minipost
Threats have forced Liberian journalist Mae Azango into hiding after she reported on female genital mutilation (FGM). Azango, who is currently in the United States, faced a backlash after she wrote an article for leading independent daily newspaper FrontPage Africa titled Growing pains: Sande tradition of genital cutting threatens health of Liberian women. The piece forced Liberian officials to declare that the ritual should be stopped, people affiliated with the Sande secret women’s society — which performs FGM — have reportedly threatened the journalist with violence.
