Translated by Chris Brown
Acapulco, Guerrero - Journalists are not the only ones who get attacked. So do activists, environmentalists,
politicians, citizens, and community police, noted Martha Elena Ramírez, the
person responsible for the radio show Voz
pública, which broadcasts in the United States.
Ramírez, one of the speakers at the Journalism Under Siege
forum, on the occasion of the Day of Freedom of Expression organized by journalists
from Acapulco, argued that Mexico is under constant harassment from neoliberal
interests, and it is affecting its citizens.
She shared that Mexico lives under constant economic violence, the
product of decisions by foreign governments that serve transnational business
interests. Thus,
“it seems that we live in a country that can’t govern itself.”She emphasized that citizens in general live in permanent risk. However, she also stressed that the journalist who is devoted to and conscious of his/her profession must practice it in an active, not a passive, way.
The meeting was attended by representatives of
non-governmental agencies such as Article 19, Reporters without Borders, and
Periodistas de a Pie (Journalists on the Ground).
Information Gap and Self-censorship
Participants in the forum agreed that security protocols
issued from their own professional associations are needed. They criticized the
abuse of official information in the face of the information gap, which is
caused most of the time by violence, and by the self-censorship that
journalists from several states have imposed on themselves for fear of
reprisals.
Journalist Jacobo García, correspondent in Mexico for the
Spanish newspaper El Mundo, said that
“the situation in Mexico is serious and grave. The harassment of the press is much more serious than it seems.”After asking the ex PRI (Institutional Revolutionary Party) presidential candidate Enrique Peña Nieto what books he read, he received at least four threatening messages, joked García. He pointed out that civil society should feel closer to journalists, while the press should be as ethical as possible.