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Journalists protesting against violence during a march in Mexico. CC-Licensed, thanks to the Knight Foundation on Flickr.
MEXICO CITY - For many reporters and photographers, it’s pretty common to get the following assignment from their editors: Go cover a street protest, get pictures and video, look out for clashes between police and demonstrators…and be careful.
If this sounds familiar, it’s probably because the recent events in Ferguson, Missouri, have reminded us of the dangers of covering demonstrations on the streets, as reporters have been attacked or arrested during the protests sparked by the police shooting of an unarmed teen.
But for reporters in many countries, such attacks have become routine. Almost three dozen journalists in Mexico City have experienced this first-hand covering nine protests during the past two years. Instead of covering the news, the reporters ended up being the news. They were harassed, injured, arrested, and their equipment was destroyed or stolen.
In the wake of Ferguson, several posts on social networks have asked if there’s a way to track and document the attacks against journalists there. If there were, it would probably look something like the Periodistas en Riesgo (Journalists at Risk) map of Mexico, a project by the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ) and Freedom House that registers attacks against journalists in the country. (I oversee the map, which was launched by ICFJ’s Jorge Luis Sierra, as part of my ICFJ Knight International Journalism Fellowship.)
The data in the map, collected since December 2012, can be broken down by place, type of attack or type of aggressor. One of the most revealing stories the map has documented is that Mexico City exemplifies what happens when newsrooms send reporters to cover street protests without first training staff in safety protocols and first aid.
n By Javier Garza
Can Data Analysis Keep Journalists Safer?