By Deborah Van Hoewyk

Ethical Journalism Network (U.K.): Truly independent media are found only in the most developed cities – Guadalajara, Monterrey and México City. In outlying states, governors control the media and journalists have little or no culture of independence.
http://www.ethicaljournalismnetwork.org/

Salzburg Global Seminar (Austria): Ownership of the media is concentrated in the hands of two entities – TV Azteca and Televisa. With close ties to government, the media giants get the bulk of their funding from public sources, which in turn influences media coverage.
http://www.salzburgglobal.org/news/latest-news/article/protecting-reporters-and-improving-journalism-in-mexico

Columbia Journalism Review (U.S.): There are 51 community radio stations across Mexico, serving poor rural and indigenous areas that lack other forms of media. They’re often prominent advocates in local human rights struggles, giving voice to social movements not covered in the mainstream press. In a country where both journalists and activists face serious repression, community radios are at the nexus of the struggle for freedom of expression. http://www.cjr.org/analysis/mexico-radio-news-media.php

Reporters without Borders (France): Press freedom is guaranteed in the Mexican Constitution and a specific Law Regarding Freedom of the Press was passed in 1917. Censorship abounds, however, imposed with threats or direct attacks against the journalists rather than lawsuits, imprisonment, or official suspension of broadcast or distribution activities. http://www.rsf.org/en/country/mexico

University of Navarra (Spain): Between 2000 and 2022, 150 journalists in Mexico were murdered. In the first three years of President Andrés Manuel López Obrador’s term, 36 were killed [it reached 55 by the end of year 4, 2022]; for Enrique Peña Nieto, it was 19, for Felipe Calderón, it was 29. Under AMLO, the first three years saw an 85% increase in all attacks on journalists.
http://www.unav.edu/web/global-affairs/the-skyrocketing-number-of-journalists-murdered-in-mexico

Amnesty International (U.K.): In 2012, Mexico created the Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists. The Protection Mechanism is considered a failure, with enrolled journalists still experiencing attacks; two have been killed. The Protection Mechanism needs a major overhaul, and analysis “reveals an increasing tendency by the Mechanism to deny, weaken or withdraw journalists’ protective measures, despite the clear and present dangers journalists continue to face.”
http://www.amnesty.org/en/latest/news/2024/03/mexico-killings-journalists-strengthen-federal-mechanism

Committee to Protect Journalists (U.S.): Part of the John S. and James L. Knight Press Freedom Center, the CPJ maintains an “Impunity Index” of countries where journalists are killed, and their murderers go unpunished. In Mexico, 90% of journalist killings go unpunished; Mexico has appeared on the Impunity Index for the 16 years it has been in existence. http://www.cpj.org/2023/10/faces-of-impunity-across-the-world/