Toward "Pacted" Journalism in Mexico?

In a 10-point accord released Thursday, some of Mexico’s most powerful media executives, representing over 40 media groups, say they will begin limiting their publication of violent drug war images and stop printing “propaganda” that might glorify cartel activities. The Washington Post reports on the announcement, saying the “guidelines” are non-binding and will still allow for the publication of some sorts of violent images – although it remains unclear, at least from early reports, what limits are under the new pact.

Notably, a number of Mexico’s most important newspapers and news outlets – among them Reforma, La Jornada, and the weekly Proceso – refused to sign on to the agreement. Carmen Aristegui of CNN Espanol criticized the pact directly Thursday, calling it a move toward “patriotic journalism.” Proceso journalist GenaroVillamil said the accord “opened the door to a form of prior censorship.”

The agreement appears to be a “nod” to President Felipe Calderon who has long criticized the media for how drug violence is reported. Calderon praised the new guidelines in a statement Thursday:

“Media participation is crucial in building state security policy, underscoring the importance of this agreement. We encourage other parts of society to promote initiatives like this one to confront those who want to destroy the peace and security of all Mexicans.”

On the Committee to Protect Journalists blog, Mike O’Connor, the CPJ’s Mexico representative seems to have mixed reactions to the Thursday accord. On the one hand, O’Connor says the agreement “could set professional standards” in a country where journalistic coverage of the drug wars has been “haphazard.” The problem: the fact that “organized crime cartels are so powerful in many parts of the country that they will likely be able to block some of the most important elements of the accord with the same intimidation they use to control much of the press already.”

O’Connor adds that the new guidelines also state drug war violence should be covered in its proper “context” – an almost impossible goal to meet when, according to the CPJ, journalist’s lives are at stake. CPJ Americas program head Carlos Lauría seems more supportive. He’s quoted by Reuters this morning saying:

“I think this is positive in a sense that they are getting together and forming a united front…There is nothing worse than the current situation where the media is being cowed into silence in many parts -- in places where the government has lost control.”

Today’s bullet points:

· Also on Mexico, IPS reports on rising incidents of “forced disappearances” in Mexico. According to IPS, “the U.N. Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances is gathering and analyzing information about some 30 activists who have been forcibly disappeared, to include the cases in their 2012 report.” That report is expected to strongly criticize the Mexican government for the lack of attention it has paid to the issue. Human rights groups working in Mexico suspect more than 3,000 individuals have been forcibly disappeared in the country since 2006. Impunity, activists and legal experts say, remains the principal enabler for the persistence of such crimes.

· The Latin America Herald Tribune says new PRI leader, Humberto Moreira, is calling on the Mexican government to double-down on its militarization of the drug wars, saying more – not fewer – army troops and federal police should be sent to Mexico’s borders, specifically its southern border. According to recent statements made by Moreira, President Calderon’s anti-crime strategy has been a failure because of poor planning and a lack of resources, specifically an inadequate number of troop deployments.

· And Mexico’s El Universal reported earlier this week on a new request from the Instituto Federal de Acceso a la Información y Protección de Datos (IFAI) to the country’s Centro de Investigación y Seguridad Nacional (CISEN). IFAI is demanding that more information be released by the government about persons killed in confrontations with criminal groups and Mexican authorities from 2000 to 2010. Specifically, IFAI wants CISEN to release more specifics about who exactly has been killed. Should the request be answered, the move would be an important victory for access to information advocates in Mexico.

· The AP reports on the Inter-American Court of Human Rights decision late Wednesday, condemning Uruguay for its legal inaction in the 1976 disappearance of María Claudia García Iruretagoyena de Gelman. Rights experts have called the case a “watershed” for ending impunity stemming from Uruguay’s 1973-1985 military dictatorship. Most significantly the IACHR decision, according to the Center for Justice and International Law, “renders ineffective” a 1986 impunity law (the Expiry Law of Demanded State Punishment) which continues to protect members of the Uruguayan armed forces from prosecution for human rights violations committed during the dictatorship. The Gelman case was the first against Uruguay to reach the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, according to AP.

· From IDL-Reporteros, an interesting interview with prominent Cuban blogger and journalist Orlando Luis Pardo Lazo.

· IPS looks at whether or not two developing world blocs, the BRICs and IBSA, can be complementary bodies of alternative integration.

· With Obama back in the United States, Hugo Chavez is set to embark on a similar tour across the region. He visits Dilma Rousseff in Brazil on Monday, March 28, to continue a tradition of quarterly Brazil-Venezuela talks begun under Lula da Silva’s presidency. The Venezuelan president then heads on to meet with Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner in Buenos Aires on Tuesday. On April 1, Chavez will be in Colombia for a meeting with President Juan Manuel Santos, the third since Santos was inaugurated in August 2010. And later in April, it looks like Chavez may be visiting Mauricio Funes and the FMLN in El Salvador, perhaps to inaugurate a new fuel storage facility built there as a joint El Salvador-Venezuela venture. (Funes also seems to be planning in trip to Caracas in the coming months, according to Prensa Latina).

· On the presidential race in Peru, the AP profiled Alejandro Toledo earlier in the week – the man who still remains the frontrunner in a tightening presidential vote. The Economist, meanwhile, looks at neoliberal economist and former investment banker Pedro Pablo Kuczynski’s rise.

· The Economist also offers its recap this week of elections in Haiti.

· WOLA’s Adam Isacson, at Just the Facts, writes on the tragic murder this week of Gloria Gaona, the Colombian judge overseeing the case against military officials charged with murdered three children in Arauca. Just the Facts: “The murder…also sends a chilling message to judges, prosecutors, investigators and witnesses in cases of alleged military human rights abuse. Most of these individuals already work in conditions of frequent threats and insufficient security. The Supreme Judiciary Council estimates that 750 judges have been threatened since 2007.”

· Final parting shot opinions on Obama’s Latin America tour: Michael Shifter in La Tercera and the Institute for Policy Studies’ Manuel Perez-Rocha at Foreign Policy in Focus.

· The Center for a New American Security has released a new policy brief on transnational organized crime in the Western Hemisphere.

· And IPS on the rise of the Latin American multinational corporation.