Protecting journalists in the face of growing violence and attacks

Protecting journalists in the face of growing violence and attacks
Wesley Gibbings
The Guardian.

Austin, Texas—During a visit to the state of Veracruz in Mexico, freelance journalist and press freedom advocate, Daniela Pastrana, received an unusual request. “I need a gun,” a colleague from the violence-plagued state asked. “Why would you need a gun?” Pastrana replied. “I don’t think it would be a good idea for you to carry a gun.” “I don’t need a gun to respond to any attack,” the Veracruz journalist responded. “I need it because we have decided that they won’t take us alive.”

 

Only days before, the dismembered corpses of three photojournalists had been found. Something had been used to peel the skin from their bodies. They were victims in an escalating war on journalists daring to report on the country’s violent drug cartels and a trade that has claimed close to 50,000 lives in the last six years. Most recently, attention has turned to journalists whose work has exposed a thriving network of corruption, graft and violence linked to narco-trafficking. Brazil, Colombia and Honduras are listed alongside Mexico as being the most dangerous countries for the work of journalists in the Western Hemisphere by press freedom groups. 

http://www.guardian.co.tt/columnist/2012-05-26/protecting-journalists-face-growing-violence-and-attacks