The organization holds seminar on safety in news coverage

The IAPA will present a documentary on journalist Francisco Ortiz Franco in Tijuana to commemorate the sixth anniversary of his murder on June 22, 2004; at the same time it will hold a seminar on how to reduce risks while covering the news.

The documentary, “El Crujir de las palabras” (Word-crunching) which narrates the Ortiz Franco case, will be shown in Tijuana under the sponsorship of the local weekly newspaper Zeta. Ortiz Franco, the paper’s joint editor, was reporting on organized crime in Mexico when he was shot and killed six years ago by a group of unidentified assailants who aimed AK-47 submachine guns at him from a moving station wagon in front of his young children. The crime continues to go unpunished.

Participating in the event to honor his memory will be members of his family, together with José Santiago Healy of the Chula Vista, California, Spanish-language newspaper Diario San Diego, a member of the IAPA Board of Directors and chairman of its Future Sites Committee; Adela Navarro, joint editor of Zeta; IAPA Press Freedom Director Ricardo Trotti, and María Idalia Gómez and Darío Frtiz, producers of the film and investigative reporters for the IAPA Rapid Response Unit.

The following day (June 23) the Tijuana newspaper Frontera will sponsor a seminar titled “Reducing Risks, Safe Coverage.” The day-long event will be held by editor Daniel Healy at the Frontera offices and will offer executives, editors, reporters, photographers and cameramen tools for dealing with the risks facing media newsroom staff, focused on Mexico, to train to do their job without jeopardizing their physical safety.

Presentations will be made by Francisco Cuamea, a Mexican cameraman, producer and reporter; Jorge Luis Sierra, a Mexican reporter and expert in security, defense and armed conflict matters; Ricardo Trotti, María Idalia Gómez and Dario Fritz.