January 28, 2010 marks the public birth of Geografía de Riesgos (Geography of Risks), a new project that we are undertaking in the IAPA with the objective of investigating acts of violence undermining the work of journalists and news media in Mexico.

There are many reasons why the exercise of freedom of expression is at risk in this Latin American country, coming not only – as might be thought – from organized crime. Political bossism, abuse by local powers-that-be, corruption or security forces are part of a complex framework which while there is no reason for it to be linked sadly too often makes the work of the news media dangerous.

A team headed by our Mexico Rapid Response Unit (RRU) to deal here (as in Colombia, Brazil and other Latin American countries) with the large number of cases of impunity and attacks on freedom of expression will be recording and monitoring for eight months the various developments (intimidations, threats, abductions, murders) in Mexico’s 32 states, enabling us to have a clearer overall picture.

The newest cases, to mention those in recent days, show us in Chihuahua, Baja California Sur and Sinaloa two kinds of different threats and the peculiarity of limits to free speech in Mexico.

Reporters, editors and publishers, news company executives, family members and government officials will be presenting their testimonies which we will be portraying in this blog (http://geografiaderiesgos.blogspot.com/), so that readers can bring themselves up-to-date in real time on the project’s progress.

The blog in addition seeks to generate an exchange of information with the readers, for which a space is opened up to the public for comments or contributions of all kinds that may contribute to being better informed about the risks of working as a journalist.

This effort will wind up in the second half of 2010 with a comprehensive text that will report on the details of the investigation and a multimedia work on the Web.

To better understand this problem and to share it will enable us to get to know the real conditions in which news coverage is being carried out today and to judge whether the people’s right to be informed is one of the major losses facing Mexico.

For the IAPA it will be a learning and informational path in order to continue pushing for legal instruments, judicial actions and public awareness as corrective action and protection of press freedom.

We look forward to your contributions and participation.