Threatened journalists and information
Information and a free press are usually seen as vital to the existence of a free state. What happens if the press is discredited or if journalists are killed off? Is controlling the press necessary for an authoritarian system?
Is this a case of limited state capacity? Or is the state actively suppressing journalism? Maybe the title question should be "Does Mexico want to save its journalists?"
Can Mexico save its journalists?
Journalists are being murdered in Mexico and this is nothing new. This is one of the most dangerous countries for reporters, rights groups say, and more die here than in any other nation at peace.
But even for a place so used to drugs-related violence and organised crime, the recent bloodshed has been shocking.
Seven journalists have been killed in the country so far this year, most shot by gunmen in broad daylight. Yet virtually all cases of attacks on the press end up unsolved and, in many, corrupt officials are suspected of partnering with criminals…
Since 2000, at least 106 journalists have been killed across Mexico, according to rights group Article 19. Exact numbers are hard to come by as investigations often get nowhere and different studies apply different criteria in counting the dead…
In 2010, pressure from campaigners led to the creation of a special office of the federal prosecutor for crimes against freedom of expression, known as the Feadle, which investigates attacks on journalists.
But the authorities have often ruled that the victims themselves are not journalists or that the incidents have no connection to their work, according to critics.
Like last month. When the charred remains of Salvador Adame, the head of a TV station in the western state of Michoacán, were found, state prosecutors said that the case had to do with personal disputes, possibly a love affair, angering relatives and campaigners…
[Journalist Ismael Bolorquez said,] "The [Feadle] doesn't have resources or teams to investigate. Our system of protection of journalists doesn't work... The government's policies to protect us are a failure."
The result is that journalism itself has become a victim. "Investigative journalism in many places in Mexico is just impossible to be exercised," said Carlos Luria, CPJ's senior programme co-ordinator for the Americas.
"There are no guarantees, no condition, no protection, there is an absence of the state. This is decimating journalism in Mexico."…
Ana Cristina Ruelas, Article 19's director for Mexico and Central America [asserted that]… Corruption is rife in Mexico, and rogue police and politicians were the suspects in more than half of the incidents against the media in the last six years… And most cases were never looked into.
"The state doesn't investigate itself. There is a direct link between the level of impunity and corruption," Ms Ruelas said. "This impunity allows the aggressors to continue attacking the press in broad daylight."…
Distrust grew even further last month, after the New York Times accused the Mexican government of spying on several top journalists, lawyers and human rights defenders by hacking their phones with spyware meant to be used against criminals and terrorists - a claim the Mexican presidency denied.
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| No silence |
"It's very hard to connect the words of the presidency with actions because until now we haven't found a clear reflection of these words in actions that provide results," said Ms Ruelas, from Article 19.
Reporters, however, say the latest killings prove that their work is more urgent than ever: "No to silence".
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Labels: democracies, freedom of the press, journalism, Mexico, state capacity
Russian media integration
Media integration in Russia is done less directly than in China, but the results are very similar.
In Putin’s Russia, the hollowed-out media mirrors the state
Today, the three major Russian TV channels are either directly owned by the state, operating as state enterprises… or owned by a subsidiary of one of Russia’s largest oil and gas companies…
Members of Putin’s administration – today it’s his deputy chief of staff Alexey Gromov – control the political coverage and decide both what foreign and domestic policies are to be covered, and how and, more importantly, what is not to be covered…
The editors-in-chief of all the major media in Russia attend regular “strategy meetings” with Putin’s staffers. It’s like Fight Club: no member will admit to its existence – but it’s fairly easy to deduce, given how coordinated the coverage is on the most watched TV shows across all three major news channels…
In their minds, reporters working for state news outlets – which effectively are almost all news outlets in Russia – are public servants first and journalists second (if at all)…
Today, the Russian state employs both hard and soft power to further its grip on the country’s media. New restrictive laws are passed with dispiriting predictability: foreign media franchise owners are forced out of their stakes in international brands such as Forbes or Esquire based in Russia, fines and other penalties are introduced for not covering controversial subjects such as terrorism and drug abuse in terms that “do not explicitly discourage the behaviour”. Independent outlets are threatened into self-censorship and choked of the things they need to survive – such as cable services or access to print shops – if they don’t comply…
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Labels: censorship, journalism, politics, Russia
Murderous journalism
Politics is deadly in Russia. In Mexico journalism is deadly.
Miroslava Breach third Mexican journalist to be killed this month
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| Breach |
A journalist has been shot dead in the Mexican state of Chihuahua, the third to be killed in the country this month.
Miroslava Breach was shot eight times in her car outside her home in the state capital, Chihuahua…
Mrs Breach had reported on organised crime, drug-trafficking and corruption for a national newspaper, La Jornada, and a regional newspaper, Norte de Juarez.
The gunmen left a note saying: "For being a loud-mouth."…
The Committee to Protect Journalists… says 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992.
See also: List of journalists and media workers killed in Mexico
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Labels: journalism, Mexico, violence
Editor's protest
To outsiders, the resignation of an editor over content restrictions might not seem unusual. In China, a voluntary resignation is nearly unheard of.
Editor Says He Is Resigning Over Media Controls in China
An editor at a prominent Chinese newspaper said he was stepping down from his job because he could no longer withstand the pressures of strict control of the country’s media, according to a resignation note posted online.
The announcement follows increasing emphasis by Chinese leaders on control of the media…
The resigning journalist, Yu Shaolei, has worked at Southern Metropolis Daily, a newspaper based in the southern city of Guangzhou, since 2000, and most recently he served as editor of the culture department…
Mr. Yu’s post included a short explanation of his decision. China Digital Times, a website affiliated with the University of California, Berkeley, gave this translation of the message:
“This spring, let’s make a clean break. I’m getting old; after bowing for so long, I can’t stand it anymore. I want to see if I can adopt a new posture. To the person responsible for monitoring my Weibo and notifying his superiors about what I should be made to delete: You can heave a sigh of relief. Sorry for the stress I’ve caused you these last few years, and I sincerely hope your career can take a new direction. And to those friends who care about me, I won’t even say goodbye, Southern Media Group.”
The Southern Media Group, also called the Nanfang Media Group, is the parent company for some of the country’s most aggressive publications. But those outlets have increasingly been restrained and muzzled…
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
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Labels: censorship, China, journalism, politics
All news about us is is good news
Even the most predictable news reporting in the USA is less predictable than news in China.
No news is bad news
EACH night at 7pm, many of China’s television channels beam the state broadcaster’s flagship news programme into Chinese homes: a remorseless half-hour diet of where Xi Jinping went today, how well the economy is doing and (for a few minutes at the end) a look at all those people in foreign countries killing each other. Despite China’s transformation over the past 40 years, the evening news has changed very little…
 |
| Xinwen Lianbo |
News Simulcast, usually known by its Chinese name, Xinwen Lianbo, has chronicled the country’s extraordinary metamorphosis with almost unremitting leadenness since it was first aired in 1978… News is chosen not for its importance or human interest but for its political value in bolstering the Communist Party. It is translated into eight minority languages…
A popular rhyming ditty accurately describes the format: “The leaders are always busy, the people are perfectly healthy, the world outside China is extremely chaotic.”…
For many, the programme provides useful clues to the party’s latest thinking, and a chance to see leaders who rarely appear in public. Propagandists have used the news to try to demystify President Xi, says Chang Jiang of Renmin University in Beijing. The president is shown as a man of the people, drinking tea with villagers or kicking footballs. His voice is often heard, notes Mr Chang—perhaps because, unlike his predecessors, he speaks standard Mandarin and is therefore widely understood. Ratings apparently rise when his elegant wife, Peng Liyuan, appears. But such cosmetic innovations are as far as the party will go in tinkering with a brand they consider successful.
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The Comparative Government and Politics Review Checklist.
Two pages summarizing the course requirements to help you review and study for the final and for the big exam in May. . It contains a description of comparative methods, a list of commonly used theories
, a list of vital concepts, thumbnail descriptions of the AP6,
and
a description of the AP exam format
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Labels: China, journalism, political integration, politics
A reason for skepticism
This is a good explanation of
one of the reasons that journalistic sources cannot be considered definitive when learning about government and politics anywhere.
Bloomberg News Is Said to Curb Articles That Might Anger China
The decision came in an early evening call to four journalists huddled in a Hong Kong conference room…
The investigative report they had been working on for the better part of a year, which detailed the hidden financial ties between one of the wealthiest men in China and the families of top Chinese leaders, would not be published…
“[Mr. Winkler] said, ‘If we run the story, we’ll be kicked out of China,’” one of the employees said. Less than a week later, a second article, about the children of senior Chinese officials employed by foreign banks, was also declared dead, employees said…
Bloomberg News infuriated the government in 2012 by publishing a series of articles on the personal wealth of the families of Chinese leaders, including the new Communist Party chief, Xi Jinping. Bloomberg’s operations in China have suffered since, as new journalists have been denied residency and sales of its financial terminals to state enterprises have slowed…
Other news organizations have come under similar pressure. The websites of The New York Times, including a new Chinese-language edition, were blocked when it published an article in October 2012 on the family wealth of Wen Jiabao, then the prime minister. Like Bloomberg, The Times has also not received residency visas for new journalists…
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Labels: China, critical thinking, journalism
Just The Facts! 2nd edition is a concise guide to concepts, terminology, and examples that will appear on May's exam.
