We received and email from our friend, Charles of blip.tv alerting us to a situation in Mexico. A person working with Alive in Mexico (the same folks who started Alive in Baghdad) was injured while covering demonstrations. We’ve tried to put them in touch with some of our contacts, but they could use some help putting together some guidelines on safety measures about how they can more safely do their work. If you have any suggestions, let them know.
[Editor’s note: One of our correspondents, Yazmín Nuñez was injured by police in Mexico City on Tuesday, the 27th of March, while covering a demonstration concerning the ISSSTE (Instituto al Servico de la Seguridad Social de los Trabajadores del Estado) for more information read about the demonstrations here.. English is coming as soon as possible, if you would like to offer translation skills, please be in touch.]
To the general public:
On March 27, 2007, the reporter and camerawoman Yazmin Nuñez H. was beaten by the riot police of the Mexico City police department as she was covering the demonstration against changes in the Social Security law. Lacerations on her waist, neck, left ear and other parts of her body were caused by the kicks and blows of uniformed police. They show a total lack of respect for the journalism practiced by our compañera and for the news media that she serves as a correspondent, including aliveinmexico.org internet television for the United States, the independent newspaper Machetearte, and the media coop libertasanticorpTV.After the attack, other reporters and photographers came to her rescue and were able to pull her out of the police encirclement, where her press credentials and 800 pesos were taken from her.
Our work is based on freedom of expression, freedom of the press, freedom of thought, and the right of the society to communicate and stay informed. We demand respect for our work as journalists and are hereby publishing this denunciation to register our opposition to the dreadful treatment of the press and innocent citizens. We cannot allow violence against reporters to be a constant, appalling custom in the country.