Investigative Journalism on the Cover Illustration by Ricardo Trotti Focus on Mexico the Latin American Press Has Long Suffered from Attacks on Press Freedom
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Harvard University non-profit org David Rockefeller Center for Latin American Studies u.s. postage 1730 Cambridge St. paid boston, ma Cambridge, MA 02138 permit no. 1636 contributors 36 Kara Andrade is an Ashoka fellow working in Central America. 25 Gustavo Gorriti is the founder and director of IDL-Reporteros, a 28 Mónica Almeida is Quito editor of Guayaquil-headquartered El digital, nonprofit investigative publication in Peru.23 Carlos Lauría is Universo. 10 Rosental Alves is the director and founder of the Knight the Americas senior program coordinator of the Committee to Protect Center for Journalism in the Americas. 8 Jaime Abello Banfi is the Journalists. 39 Juanita León is the owner, founder and director of lasil- executive director of Fundación Nuevo Periodismo Iberoamericano. lavacia.com. 62 Theodore Macdonald is a Fellow at the University Com- 32 Benjamin Fernández Bogado is founder and director of Radio Libre mittee on Human Rights Studies, and a Lecturer at Harvard University. and Fundacion Libre. 21 Catalina Botero Marino is Special Rapporteur 2 Gonzalo Marroquín is president of the InterAmerican Press Associa- for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commision on Human tion. 15 Graciela Mochkofsky is the co-founder and editor of digital Rights. 21 Michael J. Camilleri, Harvard J.D. ’04, is a Human Rights magazine el puercoespin. 34 Raúl Peñaranda is editor-in-chief of Pá- Specialist with the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of gina Siete in Bolivia. 53 Judith Torrea is an independent journalist and Expression. 46 Alfredo Corchado, Mexico City bureau chief for the Dal- blogger from Spain. 18 Ricardo Trotti is Press Freedom and Press Insti- las Morning News, is a 2010-11 Visiting Fellow at DRCLAS. tute director of the Inter American Press Association. 56 Marcela Turati 41 Carlos Dada is the founder and director of El Faro. 60 Barbara Fash is a staff reporter for Proceso Magazine. 61 Kirsten Weld is the Florence is the Director of the Corpus of Maya Hieroglyphic Inscriptions Program. Levy Kay Fellow in Latin American History at Brandeis University. 12 Josh Friedman is the Director of the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism in the Americas. 51 Javier Garza Ramos is editor-in-chief of FEATURED ARTWORK BY: El Siglo de Torreón. 6 Bob Giles is curator of the Nieman Foundation for Ricardo Trotti, Daniela Rea, Jess Fernandez, Humberto Delgado, Journalism. 43 Mónica González is the director of CIPER. Marcela Turati, Judith Torrea and Donna DeCesare harvard review of Latin america journalism of the americas spring | summer 2011 editor’s letter TheZocalo Best Hed Job 26 in pt the World Zocalo deck 14 point one line BY I always assumed Róbinson Rojas was Dominican. For decades now, I’ve been carrying around his words or posting them on my walls. I was given these inspiring words by my dear friend, the photojournalist Ramón DeJesús Lora, then a Dominican exile, when I entered Columbia School of Journalism in 1969. “A la pequeña legión de periodistas latinoamericanos y norteamericanos, anónimos en su mayoría, que cada día son humillados, son ofendidos y hasta torturados moralmente, porque están empeñados en una tarea peligrosa: descubrir la verdad.” That translates as, “To the small legion of Latin American and North American journalists, anonymous for the most part, who every day are humiliated, insulted and even morally tortured because they are bent on carrying out a dangerous task: to discover the truth.” voLume X no. 2 I went to journalism school before Watergate, which for many was a watershed in jour- David Rockefeller Center nalistic truth seeking. But my neighbors in a Dominican neighborhood of New York, including for Latin American Studies Ramón, had already taught me the value and perils of truth seeking in journalism; they had director experienced the Trujillo dictatorship and the U.S. invasion of Santo Domingo. Journalism was merilee s. grindle their lifeline. associate director Rojas’ words served as a model for my life as a foreign correspondent—whether in Bogotá, Kathy eckroad Managua or even eventually Berlin. The part about danger became more and more painfully personal. My friend Richard Cross and our colleague Dial Torgerson were blown up by a land ReVista mine in northern Nicaragua; Linda Frazier, a reporter for the Tico Times in Costa Rica, who had editor in-chief planted roses in my San José garden, was killed by a bomb intended for contra leader Eden June carolyn erlick Pastora; other reporters met their fate in Central American crossfire. copy editor Yes, there were risks, as the courageous journalists in Mexico are experiencing now. Jour- anita safran nalism can be scary, but the truth is, it’s also fun and exciting. We journalists like to tell stories; publications intern we like to figure out sources, and, yes, we like to ferret out the truth. Jai c. beeman That’s why practicing journalism in Latin America is both enriching and challenging. It’s design a continent of story tellers. It’s a continent where truth is often hidden, but where reporters, 2communiqué through digging, can bring down governments or put into motion international indignation www.2communique.com about human rights abuses. It was, after all, the death of a courageous editor, Pedro Joaquín printer Chamorro, that brought down the decades-long Somoza dictatorship in Managua. p & r publications Gabriel García Márquez called journalism the best job in the world. I couldn’t agree more. contact us “Journalism,” he said in a 1996 speech to the Inter American Press Association, “is an unap- 1730 cambridge street peasable passion that can be assimilated and humanized only through stark confrontation with cambridge, ma 02138 reality.” telephone: 617-495-5428 In addition to my job as editor-in-chief of ReVista, I teach journalism at Harvard Extension facsimile: 617-496-2802 School. Sometimes my students confront me and ask me if journalism is dead, and why am I subscriptions and reader forum not teaching them tweeting and social media and blogs. And I insist that those are the new [email protected] tools of journalism, and very valuable tools, but to practice journalism, one must understand website how to report and write and search for the truth. www.drclas.harvard.edu/publications/ revistaonline Many of the journalists in this issue are involved with new ways of story telling; all of them are committed to truth seeking. With still relatively low but growing Internet penetration, Latin facebook reVista, the Harvard review of Latin america American journalism has the advantage of time to prepare in a creative way for a digital future. As I began to write this editor’s letter, I realized that after a recent move, I had Róbinson this issue of ReVista is made possible Rojas’ words tucked inside some unpacked box. I resort to Google, thinking that I will never through the generous support of banco be able to find the quote. It pops up immediately. And after 42 years, I discover that Róbinson santander Rojas was not Dominican, but Chilean. copyright © 2011 by the president and fellows of Harvard college. ISSN 1541–1443 ReVista is printed on recycled stock. 2 ReVista spring | summer 2011 harvard review of Latin america spring | summer 2011 volume X no. 2 published by the david rockefeller center for Latin american studies Harvard university journalism of the americas in every issue first taKe maKing a difference 60 Attacking the Press By Gonzalo Marroquín 2 Inheritors of History With Barbara Fash refLections booK TALK Latin American Nieman Fellows By Bob Giles 6 Guatemala: An Urban Focus 61 New Journalists for a New World By Jaime Abello Banfi 8 A Review By Kirsten Weld Journalism Training By Rosental Alves 10 Indigenous Lands: Loss and Dignity 62 Covering the Region By Josh Friedman 12 A Review By Theodore Macdonald What’s New in Latin American Journalism By Graciela Mochkofsky 15 reader forum 64 under attacK Indirect Censorship By Ricardo Trotti 18 21 Freedom of Expression in Latin America onLine By Catalina Botero Marino and Michael J. Camilleri Look for more content online at Silencing the Media By Carlos Lauría 23 drclas.harvard.edu/publications/revistaonline. Beyond Intimidation and Exile By Gustavo Gorriti 25 The Law as Censor By Mónica Almeida 28 new Voices Journalism in Paraguay By Benjamin Fernández Bogado 32 Why I Created a New Newspaper in Bolivia By Raúl Peñaranda U. 34 Citizen Media By Kara Andrade 36 La Silla Vacía By Juanita León 39 El Faro By Carlos Dada 41 By Mónica González 43 Investigative Journalism on the cover illustration by ricardo trotti focus on mexico the Latin american press has long suffered from attacks on press freedom. today, journalists and their media face pres- Midnight in Mexico By Alfredo Corchado Photos By Daniela Rea 46 sures from governments, power elites and extralegal groups. By Javier Garza Ramos 51 ricardo trotti, director of press freedom for the inter ameri- Under Fire in Mexico can press association and an established artist, created this Juarez in the Shadows By Judith Torrea 53 image to illustrate some of those threats. His artwork can be found throughout this issue (see pages 2, 7, 15, 17, 19, 20, 23, 25, From the Ashes of Violence By Marcela Turati 56 29, 30, and inside back cover). drcLas.HarVard.edu/pubLications/reVistaonLine ReVista 1 first take Attacking the Press BY GONZALO MARROQUÍN thE parkING garagE IN A CIUdad JUÁREZ shopping center was splashed with blood on the afternoon of September 16, 2010. Photographers Luis Carlos Santiago Orozco, 21, and Carlos Manuel Sánchez Colunga, 18, had been on a lunch break at the mall when they were gunned down.