Mexican media organizations sign agreement on coverage of the violence

A group of Mexican news organizations signed today an agreement on how to cover the violence generated by organized crime.

It is an unprecedented agreement, which attempts to unify the criteria for the coverage of the most relevant issue affecting Mexican society these days.

The agreement signed by more than 50 news media outlets responds to the need of developing a strategy to defend the freedom of speech, which has been threatened and cancelled in some regions of the country by organized crime.

The participants agree on several points, among them the purpose of making sure that drug cartel leaders are not seen as victims or public heroes. They also agree on establishing mechanisms to prevent criminal organizations of using media as a propaganda tool.

However, there are some concerns regarding that specific point. According to the document, the media should “omit and reject information coming from criminal groups with propagandistic purposes. The media should not become a part of the conflict between organized crime groups”.

Few days ago, some media outlets published information about the creation of a mega-coalition of drug cartels with the purpose of fighting the Zetas, a criminal organization that is considered the most violent group in Mexico. Under the new media coverage agreement, would this be a news story worthy to cover? If the information was covered, would be the media contributing to the propagandistic purpose of the coalition of drug cartels?  The other way around, if the information was not covered –because media decide that this is propaganda from the cartels– what would happen with the citizens’ right to be informed?

One of the points of the agreement also establishes that media should not release information that would risk the government operations against organized crime or the life of people involved in those operations.  Although one can agree on the need to protect people’s lives, the line between self-censorship and following the protocol would be very thin.  Often, in some of those government operations there are issues of human rights and judicial proceedings that should be clearly exposed to the public opinion. What would be the protocol to follow in those cases?

In several forums, President Felipe Calderón has expressed his disagreement with the way the mainstream media has covered the drug war. He has complained that media has put to much attention to the bad things and not enough effort to cover the Mexican government achievements to reduce crime.  I’m wondering if this media agreement is in some way related to Calderon’s complains…Hopefully it is not.

There are some plausible points within the agreement, such as the need to protect the identity and the rights of victims and children, or the urgency to establish protocols to guarantee the safety of journalists covering information related to organized crime.

As you probably know, Mexico is considered one of the most dangerous places for journalists in the world, with more than 65 journalist killed since year 2000. In some regions of the country, news organizations have imposed self-censorship as a way to protect their reporters and their own survival as a media outlet. As a result of that, complete communities in the north of Mexico (Tamaulipas, Reynosa, and some cities in Coahuila, just to mention a few) are not receiving any information regarding the organized crime violence from their local news organizations.

I’m wondering then, how an agreement such as this is going to help those organizations to overcome the self-censorship situation. And the answer seems to be clear: is not going to help them in anyway because in those areas, the power and voices of organized crime are much stronger than the voice of society.

 

 

 

Comments

[Tom]

The Agreement will never work... Here is the TRUTH... MEXICO is in the worst condition of its entire history since the conquistadors invaded the Indians. The second point... The prez Calderon, is attempting to manipulate the press... ARE WE SURPRISED?? NO! ITS HOW MEXICANS THINK! Why does he not offer the press freedom to report the truth and offer to PROTECT THEM FROM REPROACH? Is AMERICAN EXAMPLE NOT ENOUGH!!!