Mexico: second deadliest place to work for journalists

The Mexican flag ©Esparta Palma

Mexico has been ranked as the second deadliest place to work for journalists covering the news after Iraq, according to Newseum records. Many journalists killed were crime reporters, a dangerous profession in the midst of Mexico’s deadly and unstoppable drug wars.

The chairman of the Newseum interactive museum in Washington D.C., Alberto Ibarguen said in an Associated Press article: “These murders strike at the heart of democracy by silencing speech and by depriving a community of the information it needs to conduct its affairs.”

Read Full Post »

Cuban journalists still censored and jailed

Among the 300 political prisoners in Cuban jails today, 23 journalists are serving lengthy prison sentences for having founded an independent news agency, written for a dissident review, or spoken to a media in the Cuban diaspora. Many have been sentenced from 14 to 27 years and others are being held without trial.

In 2003 the government carried out a media crackdown called “black spring” which saw the arrest of 27 journalists, sentenced for alleged collaboration with the United States against “Cuba’s economy and national independence.”

The organisation Reporters Without Borders keeps detailed information on all the journalists being detained and calls for their release. One imprisoned journalist, Víctor Rolando Arroyo Carmona, who had been in jail previously for publishing an unauthorised article criticising tobacco growing methods, ran the biggest independent library in Cuba. He was called a “traitor to Cuba” at his trial and has been beaten in prison and denied communication with his family.

Raúl Castro‘s presidency, which began in 2006, has done little to alter press freedom, though four journalists imprisoned during “black spring” were released in February of last year. Cuba is the world’s second biggest jailer of journalists after China.

Read Full Post »