Journalists in Mexico
The Documentary Podcast
BBC
4.3 • 2.7K Ratings
🗓️ 19 February 2022
⏱️ 24 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Outside a war zone, Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries to be a journalist. In 2021, seven journalists were murdered. In the first few weeks of this year alone, the killing of five journalists has prompted an outcry and concern. We hear what it is like when your job is to try and tell stories in a country where four people are killed every hour and where violent crimes fill your news-feeds. For Adrián López Ortiz, the CEO and editor of Noroeste newspaper in the state of Sinaloa, north-western Mexico, it is a long standing problem since he still suffers from injuries during an attack in 2014.
Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Hello, I'm Kani Sharpe on the BBC World Service and this is BBC OS Conversations Journalists in Mexico. |
| 0:10.0 | Violence in Mexico is widespread and we want to focus today on those who put themselves at risk |
| 0:15.6 | to tell the stories of what is happening. In the first few weeks of this year, |
| 0:20.0 | five journalists have been murdered. We've been hearing the journalist stories of reporting |
| 0:24.9 | in their country. I was coming back from a business trip. I was intercepted by two cars |
| 0:31.3 | from one of them came to guys and those guys sent me out of my car and one of them shot me |
| 0:38.1 | in both legs. The examples can be shocking and I should warn you that we will be discussing the |
| 0:45.8 | realities of the violence in Mexico during this edition. The really extreme examples tend to make |
| 0:52.5 | global headlines but being able to gather accurate information is extremely difficult. |
| 0:58.2 | It might not strike you as surprising therefore to hear that outside of war zones, |
| 1:02.3 | Mexico is one of the most dangerous places to be a journalist. Seven journalists were killed |
| 1:08.5 | in 2021 but as I mentioned a moment ago, there has been a series of murders targeting |
| 1:14.0 | journalists in the first weeks of this year. Those killed are José Luis Gamboa, Magarito Martinez, |
| 1:21.0 | L'Ordres Maldonado Lopez, Roberto Toledo and Jorge Lopez. On BBC OS conversations, |
| 1:28.4 | we usually bring people together from around the world with a shared experience. One of the things |
| 1:33.6 | we've been doing this week is gathering personal stories of what it's like to work as a journalist |
| 1:38.7 | in Mexico. My colleague Ben James began by talking to Inés Garcia. She's co-founder of a digital |
| 1:45.6 | new service called Punto Norte and is based in Tijuana on the west coast of Mexico, on the border |
| 1:51.9 | with California, where two of the five journalists were killed this year. This is how she starts |
| 1:58.0 | today. I tried to catch up first with the president, and as Manuel L'Opa Sabredador, |
| 2:04.0 | said in his daily conference. Also, I look at the reports of homicides or accidents that happened |
| 2:14.2 | during the night. For example, like last night, there were at least two homicides in Tijuana. |
... |
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