Armed with just courage and a notepad

By A TIMES EDITORIAL
Published October 20, 2007

Imagine if your job was so dangerous that you routinely received death threats for doing it. Imagine if every day you left for work wondering whether you would ever see your family again. No, we're not talking about the job of translator for U.S. forces in Iraq or undercover cop. The job we're describing is that of journalist in virtually any place in the Americas but the United States and Canada.

The Inter American Press Association says that journalists are increasingly facing threats of violence and murder in the Western Hemisphere. Within the past six months, at least nine journalists and three newspaper vendors have been killed and two reporters have gone missing.

Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Cuba are among the most dangerous countries for reporters. According to Venezuelan newspapers, there have been nearly 30 incidents of politically motivated attacks or lawsuits against journalists over the past six months. The IAPA says the Venezuelan government actually hinders access to newsprint for certain disfavored newspapers.

In Mexico, two journalists have been killed and two more have disappeared within the last half year. Two newspapers there have closed down in fear of their staffs' safety. In Cuba, at least 27 journalists are currently imprisoned for their independent reporting.

Even the United States isn't completely immune. In August, the editor of the Oakland Post, Chauncey Bailey, was shot and killed by a man who objected to the newspaper's investigation of his employer. But in the United States, reporters don't have to worry much about violent reprisals for what they write. It is the threat of jail for refusing to reveal confidential sources that continues to impinge on press freedom.

Undoubtedly, most U.S. journalists at some time in their careers have asked themselves whether they would be so brave under the conditions faced by their Latin American colleagues. Here, there is little to fear, with our strong First Amendment and independent judiciary, which keep public officials in check. Corruption is not endemic, as it is in much of the rest of the Western Hemisphere, and we enjoy a society in which violence against journalists is aggressively prosecuted.

For our colleagues to the south, attacks occur with relative impunity, if not the direct support of the government.

The IAPA's semiannual reports keep the world attentive to the danger inherent in reporting the truth in places where the government wants an ignorant populace. Journalists armed simply with a notepad - and a conviction that society will advance only when citizens are informed - take their lives into their hands every day. They are true profiles in courage.

[Last modified October 20, 2007, 01:27:48]