Andres Bermudez Liviano J’09, Colombia
As Mexico struggles with rampant crime related to drug trafficking, corruption and impunity, the situation along the border with the United States has become critical. In the midst of escalating violence, journalists reporting in the area are facing dangers that are directly threatening the quality and depth of their coverage.
The situation along the Mexican-American border and the role of journalists covering it were the topics of “On the Frontlines—Mexico and the United States,” the first panel of the 2008 Knight-Cabot Prizes Conference. Mexican journalists included Mariana Martínez Estens, freelance reporter and Radio Bilingue contributor in Tijuana; Ramón Cantú, of El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo; and Alfredo Quijano of Norte in Ciudad Juarez; covering the border for American media were Angela Kocherga of Belo Television and Dudley Althaus of The Houston Chronicle.
The five were near-unanimous in describing wide-spread self-censorship but occasional passive resistance in the face of violent drug gangs obsessed with barring negative stories while demanding publicity that would advance their cause.
“Journalists see themselves obliged to tell the stories not as they find them,” said Quijano. The current conditions and the constraints they face every day are shaping the coverage they can provide, he said.
Practices such as not using bylines have become common, said Martínez Estens, J '06. Fearing being targeted, journalists wait until others arrive at the scenes of events rather than racing to get a scoop, said Kocherga, who is Border bureau chief for Belo Television.
Despite the constraints, news organizations have been able to take certain stands in their work. Quijano mentioned the widespread refusal of media to reproduce the different “communications” violent groups used to spread fear, including unique signatures in their executions.
With drug violence responsible for as many as 1,200 executions this year in Ciudad Juarez alone, Kocherga urged coverage that goes beyond body counts and looks at the impact of violence on the community. In this sense, journalists see their work as giving voice to the victims, she said.
But the panelists agreed that these broader stories don’t easily fit into the shrinking news hole of U.S. media. Editors frequently ask her if any of the dead in a violent incident were American, and if not their interest diminishes automatically, said Martínez, who sometimes responds that it is difficult to determine the nationality of a beheaded corpse. The idea that “it’s their problem” is common, said Kocherga.
Despite the constraints, news organizations have been able to take certain stands in their work. Quijano mentioned the widespread refusal of media to reproduce the different “communications” violent groups used to spread fear, including unique signatures in their executions.
But there are still many factors that hinder reporting in the border. There is very little solidarity and nobody takes care of people’s back, said Althaus.
“To be a victim is to be guilty,” he said, referring to the assumption that if someone is a victim, they must have been involved in the trade. This notion has fed silence and impunity, allowing journalists to become targets, with freelancers like Martínez often the most vulnerable.
Althaus proposed that journalists come together to speak out loudly any a colleague is endangered, as they did when Cantú was threatened a couple of years back. By “always changing the breaking windows”, they might be successful in breaking the conspiracy of silence and letting it be known attacks on the press would not be ignored, he said.
This situation has worsened with the Mexican justice system’s decision to call journalists to testify in criminal cases, said Quijano. This has endangered them more, as their testimony could be interpreted as complicity and partisanship in drug.
“These are not times for heroes,” said Cantú.
