Forced Silence: Determinants of Journalist Killings in Mexico's States, 2010–2015

Abstract

Why are some subnational states more dangerous for journalists? This exploratory article assesses the association of social variables with the murders of journalists within one single country, Mexico, where forty-one journalists were killed from 2010 to 2015. The article suggests that the violent deaths of journalists in Mexico's thirty-two states are more likely to happen in those subnational polities with high levels of social violence, internal conflict, severe violations of human rights, low democratic development, and economic inequality. The implications of this research and policy recommendations are discussed within the conclusion.

Silence or alignment. Organized crime and government as primary definers of news in Mexico

“…Second, most of the victims used to cover stories related to organized crime and/or government corruption. Finally, there is almost a complete impunity regarding those crimes, because the vast majority of them are still not solved, and many were not even properly investigated (Shelley 2001, Waisbord 2002, Estévez 2010, Relly and González 2014, Holland and Ríos 2015, Shirk and Wallman 2015, Márquez 2015, IFJ 2016, Article 19 2018, González and Relly 2016, Brambila, 2017.…”

Double-edged knife: practices and perceptions of technology and digital security among Mexican journalists in violent contexts

“…1 Second, many victims were reporters covering stories related to organized crime and/or government corruption (Article 19 2019; CPJ 2020). Finally, there is almost complete impunity with respect to these crimes, because the vast majority of them have still not been solved, and many were not even properly investigated (Estévez 2010;Brambila 2017;Del Palacio 2018).…”

“…Adopting different theoretical and methodological approaches, they have discussed a wide range of topics related to anti-press violence, such as the formation of journalists' collectives in response to violence (De León Vázquez 2018), the psychological impact of covering organized crime and/or government corruption (Flores, Reyes, and Reidl 2014), the erosion of professional norms (González de Bustamante and Relly 2016), the agendasetting capacity of drug lords (González 2018), and how an increasing lack of trust in reporters by society has affected journalists' willingness to practice their profession (González and Reyna 2019). There is also a growing interest in identifying predictive factors of threats and violence against journalists at contextual, organizational, and individual levels (Brambila 2017;Hughes and Márquez-Ramírez 2018).…”

Local-Level Authoritarianism, Democratic Normative Aspirations, and Antipress Harassment: Predictors of Threats to Journalists in Mexico

“…Gohdes and Carey (2017) similarly argue that journalist killings are like “canaries in a coal mine”: Their deaths signals the deterioration of human rights protections, as officials with authoritarian leanings feel their control slipping away. Brambila has found that, in Mexico, a greater number of human rights abuses perpetrated by state security forces increases the likelihood of a journalist having been assassinated in a given state (Brambila 2017a).…”

“…A growing body of research examines the harassment of journalists in democracies with territorially uneven public security, corruption, and human rights protections (Aguilar et al 2014; Asal et al 2016; Ashraf and Brootan 2017; Brambila 2017a, 2017b; Cottle et al 2016; Del Palacio 2015; Gohdes and Carey 2017; Holland and Rios 2017; Lohner and Banjac 2017; Relly and González de Bustamante 2014; Reyna García 2014; Rodelo 2009; Thomas 2017). This research responds to urgent policy and political goals that include protecting journalists’ human rights and safeguarding their ability to act autonomously based on norms supporting democratic and just societies.…”