Wednesday, January 7, 2009
Televisa Attacked
Assailants attacked installations of Televisa in Monterrey yesterday with grenades and assault rifles. No one was hurt, as the shooting and explosions took place in a parking lot filled with cars and not people. Journalists are attacked regularly in Mexico, although it's rare (though not unheard of) that TV personalities are the victims. Since TV is overwhelmingly the most popular source of info (and Televisa is overwhelmingly the most popular broadcaster), attacks like these have greater resonance than those on newspapers. Now seems like a good time to reiterate my support for the federalization of the prosecution of attacks on journalists for their work.
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2 comments:
This actually touches on an area I deal with for work. Federalizing crimes against journalists is a no-brainer, but it certainly depends a great deal on who's running the show. The special prosecutor, Octavio Alberto Orellana, has been a joke so far, spending more time criticizing press freedom orgs for giving Mexico bad publicity than dealing with the crimes themselves. And the Brad Will case needs no comment.
I was at a conference on violence against Mexican reporters at Columbia a couple months back and Gerardo Priego Tapia, the PAN congresista who heads up the crimes against journalists commission, was in attendance. I didn't hear him speak and he seems to have a decent rep, but damn did he carry himself with a self-important macho swagger. Held his arms kinda stiff and stretched out from his body. Looked like he was about to wield his six-shooters and start poppin (in the name of freedom of expression, no doubt).
Priego Tapia is a protege of Manuel Espino, right? If so, your encounter sounds like par for the course.
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