Wiretapping has become so fashionable in Mexico that it could pose a problem for freedom of expression. The latest victim of this type of espionage was presidential candidate Josefina Vasquez Mota, of the ruling National Political Action Party (PAN). A telephone conversation in which Mota is heard complaining that National Security Secretary Genaro Garcia Luna spends more time spying on her than on fugitive drug kingpin Joaquin Chapo Guzman was released publically and made available on video sharing site YouTube.
Many of the wiretaps released in Mexico in the past have involved politicians or aspiring candidates during electoral periods. But in a country at war with organised crime, and where the number of journalists killed because of what they write or know is among the highest in the world, it is worrisome that nobody is alarmed by this eavesdropping fashionista streak.
Access to eavesdropping equipment in Mexico is easily done. US and Mexican authorities use eavesdropping to get access to information on organised crime cases, which is of concern as many times these wiretaps are carried out with information that might not be totally correct. However, both US and Mexican authorities say the practice is important and useful as it has helped them nab high-level organised crime figures.
What worries journalists and other freedom of expression advocates, however is how is organised crime and corrupt government officials use wiretaps to curb a free press.
National Mexican television network Televisa, based in Matamoros, Tamaulipas state, suffered a bomb attack on 25 March. No one was injured in the blast, which occurred in the wake of two other attacks in the same part of northern Mexico. On 19 March a car bomb explosion took place at the offices of the daily Expreso in Ciudad Victoria, the capital of Tamaulipas state. Expreso subsequently removed a statement on the attack from its website. The Durango home of Víctor Montenegro, editor of the weekly El Contralor, also faced a shooting attack during the night of 24 March. Televisa was hit by similar blasts in August 2010, though no injuries were caused.
A Tunisian journalist was physically attacked after being ejected from a political meeting last week. Al Jazeera journalist Lotfi Hajji was officially invited to a meeting on 24 March which brought together several political parties, but was ejected after some participants complained that he had a different political approach. The microphone which was being used to record the meeting was reportedly stolen and destroyed. After he was forced to leave the meeting, Hajji was severely assaulted.
Azerbaijani journalist Idrak Abbasov wins the journalism award, which recognises investigative journalism of dogged determination across a range of media, including print, online, radio and television
Accepting the award, Idrak Abbasov said:
First of all, I would like to thank Index on Censorship and all those present. I know that there are many people here today who devote their lives to the struggle for other people’s right to know the truth.
In Azerbaijan, where I have come from, telling the truth can cost a journalist their life. In countries such as Azerbaijan we journalists have to make a choice, and we choose the right to tell the truth.
For this right to tell the truth Elmar Guseinov gave his life in 2005. He knew he would not be forgiven, but he did not stop writing the truth.
I am not complaining. I made a conscious choice when I chose this profession, and I thank fate every day for my work.
Censorship, persecution, limited access to public information, arrests – the situation of the mass media in Azerbaijan is growing worse and their freedom is being curtailed year after year.
At the moment, nine journalists are under arrest on trumped-up charges of possessing drugs or weapons. In Azerbaijan, a request from a deputy of the ruling party is sufficient grounds for arresting the editor of a journal that is criticising the government, even in the absence of evidence. This is what happened to Evez Zeynalli.
In the town of Guba, four journalists were arrested without any charge whatsoever. Human rights activists are convinced that they were arrested for passing on to bloggers a video recording of an event that the censor had not wanted to see publicised.
Khadija Ismayilova, a journalist working for Radio Liberty, was blackmailed in an attempt to force her to stop her investigations into offshore companies owned by the President’s family. In 2009 Radio Liberty, the BBC and Voice of America were banned from local radio stations.
This is the price that my colleagues in Azerbaijan are paying for the right of the Azerbaijani people to know the truth about what is happening in their country. For the sake of this right we accept that our lives are in danger, as are the lives of our families. But the goal is worth it, since the right to truth is worth more than a life without truth.
CLICK HERE to view the full shortlist of the Guardian journalism award
Index’s most recent report Azerbaijan’s silenced voices is online now
