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LAWN talk: Mexico's Watchdog Journalists: Reporting on Crime Syndicates and the Corrupt
Join the Latin America at Warwick Network for our first event of the year, featuring Professor Andrew Paxman of CIDE, Mexico City.
When: Monday, 19 October, 2-3:30 pm
Where: S1.50 (Social Sciences)
Over the past two decades, Mexico has been the most dangerous country for journalists outside a war zone. The phenomenon broadly correlates to the spiralling homicide rate detonated by President Calderón’s 2006 declaration of “war” against the “drug cartels”, but the reasons are more complex. A growing body of research ascribes as much blame to agents of the state, from governors to local police. There is also a gubernatorial culture of violent repression and discursive nonchalance towards the press, which has roots in the late 19th century and persists with the aid of a parallel culture of impunity, recently bolstered by presidential hostility towards the press. Andrew Paxman considers factors past and preset behind the murder of Mexico’s media workers.