UNESCO and AMARC on the Oxacan Community Journalist Murders

AMARC, the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, clarifies the circumstances surrounding the murder of community radio journalists Felicitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino in the Mexican state of Oaxaca:

[They] were accompanied by Faustino Vázquez Martínez, Cristina Martínez Flores and two minors on their way to their community, after having participated in a meeting with the local population of Llano Juárez inviting them to participate in the radio station.

In the highway they were attacked apparently to be kidnapped, under the armed attack they lost the control of the vehicle. The aggression resulted in the death of the Journalists Teresa Bautista and Felicitas Martínez, and left wounded by bullets the couple formed by Faustino and Cristina with their two daughters. In the site of the aggression there were 20, 7.62 calibre cartridges used in assault AK-47 rifles, weapons normally reserved to use by the Army.

AMARC condemns the murders and makes several demands, including

An end to the climate of impunity that is allowing such acts of aggression, disappearances and murders to continue to be committed against members of community media, as well as journalists and media outlets in general, which is making Mexico the continent’s most dangerous country in which to work as a journalist (see: http://www.rsf.org/article.php3?id_article=24025 )

UNESCO also condemns the murders:

The Director-General of UNESCO, Koïchiro Matsuura, today condemned the murder of community radio announcers Felicitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino who were shot dead in an ambush in the state of Oaxaca, in southeast Mexico, on 7 April.
“I condemn the murder of Felicitas Martínez Sánchez and Teresa Bautista Merino,” said the Director-General. “Killing journalists is a heinous crime which harms the whole of society as it undermines the democratic right of citizens to hold informed debate and make informed political choices.”

Two young women journalists attacked and killed in Oaxaca

Unfortunately, there is more bad news from Oaxaca, as reported by Reporters Without Borders. The two young women killed were working for a community radio station serving an indigenous population.

Reporters Without Borders is deeply shocked by the fatal shooting on 7 April in Putla de Guerrero, in the southern state of Oaxaca, of Teresa Bautista Flores, 24, and Felicitas Martínez, 20, two women journalists working for La Voz que Rompe el Silencio (“The Voice that Breaks the Silence”), a community radio station serving the Trique indigenous community.

“Although there is so far no evidence that these two women were killed because of their work as journalists, their murders will be traumatic for all of Latin America’s many community radio stations, which are too often ignored or despised by the rest of the media and by governments,” Reporters Without Borders said.

Read more »

Dispatch from Oaxaca: Breaking the Communication Blockade

I received the following email from George Salzman yesterday:

Oaxaca, 3 May 2007
Friends,
I fully endorse this call for support of popular radio in Oaxaca from Tonee Mello, who initiated the Oaxaca Study-Action Group with me in December 2005. Here’s Tonee’s message:

Subject: [oaxacastudyactiongroup] APPEAL
From: Tonee Mello
Date: Wed, 2 May 2007 17:02:55 -0700 (PDT)
To: oaxacastudyactiongroup@xxxxxxxxx.com

Mis Amigos,

Mid afternoon on May 1, Labor Day, students took over the radio station at the Autonomous University Benito Juarez of Oaxaca. They explained that they intended to give ample coverage to the labor day events, which included a march by the Popular Assembly Movement.

By seven o’clock that night, government supporters were already hard at work jamming the university signal. By 10:00 the students were no longer audible.

The fear of the government is that the public hear honest news, news of real events that affect the lives of people without money and power, in towns lacking any access to newspapers. Their only source of news is government controlled corporate television.

The only available remedy is community radio. Right now, young Oaxaqueños are working to put on the air as many community radio facilities as the communities can afford. The technical support project for them is completely Oaxaqueño in staff and muscle. It’s controlled and managed at the base, in a system of democratic participation. But the funding comes in part from people like you.

This is the moment to show Oaxaca communities that they are not alone in wanting access to the truth as it relates to them in their towns and villages.

Your donation, of any amount, will help to maintain the vital training and technical support provided by Servicios de Comunicación de Oaxaca .

If you want the address to send money, drop a line to Jean Rodriguez, wabob(at)earthlink.net

Headlines from the Feb. 2 radioshow: Journalists Beaten in Oaxaca, a Pro-Fair-Use Bill, The House’s Telecomm Agenda

Community Radio Journalists Beaten in Oaxaca
Two community radio journalists were beaten by state-supported militants in the Mexican state of Oaxaca on the night of January 24.

One was arrested. According to a report from the World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters, known as AMARC, the incident occurred during a confrontation between militants of the Institutional Revolutionary Party, PRI, and the grassroots community council of San Antonio de Velasco in Oxaca. Both journalists report for community radio station Radio Calenda.

These acts of violence are part of an ongoing struggle between the former national ruling party PRI which is still in power in Oaxaca, and the popular movement that believes the state’s governor is illegally holding power.

AMARC says that this incident is one in a series of violence perpetuated by the Mexican state, which has used excessive force to attack freedom of expression, association and assembly, all of which have been widely documented by human rights organizations.

The state-sponsored beating of these two community journalists comes after a bad year in general for journalists in Mexico, where nine were killed in 2006, according to Reporters Without Borders. A significant portion of the violence against reporters happened in Oaxaca.

New Book Covers Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly

The ongoing popular resistance in that Mexican state is the subject of a new book by Nancy Davies, who appeared twice last year on this program. The book is titled “The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly,” and is being released by the publishing arm of NarcoNews.com.

The book brings together none months of Davies’ regular reports from Oaxaca, where she lives, and is compiled by George Salzman, who appeared with Davies on mediageek, and radical social philosopher James Herod, a member of the Lucy Parsons Center collective. The book includes an extensive introduction by Salzman, based on his own eyewitness experience in Oaxaca, along wit a special update from Davies appearing for the first time in print.

NarcoNews is a very grassroots organization that has been able to find the funds for an initial press run of 1000 copies. In order to fund a larger printing, NarcoNews is asking interested readers to reserve their copies in advance. You can find out more at NarcoNews.com

A Pro-Fair Use Bill

A bill that would undo some of the more odious portions of the Digital Milennium Copyright Act is due to be introduced before the end of the month by Virginia Rep. Rick Boucher. This bill, which failed in previous sessions of Congress, is supported by the Consumer Electronics Association, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and Public Knowledge.

If passed Boucher’s bill would end the ban against using circumventing anti-piracy technologies for purposes that don’t otherwise break copyright law.

At the present time it is illegal to break anti-piracy tech, like the encoding on commercial DVD movies, in order to make a backup copy of the movie, or to extract a clip for use in a way that is legal under Fair Use provisions.

Boucher’s bill, which is not quite finished, aims to restore to people the ability and right to circumvent such encryption to make such legal uses of copyrighted material.

Predictably, both the movie and recording industry lobbies oppose the bill, and given that Hollywood is represented by many Democrats in Congress, there may be some bipartisan opposition in Congress too.

Laying out the House’s Telecomm Agenda
A little bit more of what the new Democratic Congress is going to do about the internet has become clearer. On Feb. 2, Massachussetts Rep. Edward Markey, the new chairman of the House Subcommittee on Telecommunications and the Internet, delivered the keynote address at Consumer Federation of America’s Consumer Assembly in Washington, D.C. In it Markey outlined his committee’s telecommunications agenda for this session of Congress. He emphasized making broadband internet service ubiquitous and affordable, and ensuring Network Neutrality with what he called “an open architechture that supports internet freedom.”

Fellow Democrat Rep. Rick Boucher delivered a similar, but perhaps more industry-friendly message earlier the same week, speaking at the Third Annual State of the Internet Conference. He told the conference, “The Internet must remain open and accessible to all, but we don’t want to hobble innovation within the network.”

The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly

Nancy Davies has a new book coming out with Al Giordano’s Narco News Books, The People Decide: Oaxaca’s Popular Assembly. Giordano announces the book:

When on May 25, 2006 Nancy Davies published a reporter’s notebook entry on The Narcosphere titled “The Desperate Government in Oaxaca” few observers– other than Davies – saw the regime of Governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz as desperate.

Ruiz, since coming to power in 2004, had run roughshod over social movements, imprisoned political opponents (the subject of two Narco News video newsreels last February, “Prisoners of ‘Democracy’” and “Marcos Goes to Jail”), violently attacked opposition journalists, and the movements themselves were historically divided. The teachers’ union known as Section 22 went on strike as it had every May 22 for the past quarter-century, but few expected that the 2006 strike would amount to anything more than modest gains.

Davies began what would become more than seven months of nonstop reports with an opening dispatch: “Oaxaca is a perfect example of a place where those in power see the collapse of order – their order. The violence escalates more in line with their fear than with ours. When they start beating up photographers and shoving around elderly women, they must be frantic.”

More than seven months later, Oaxaca is world-renowned for the rebellion through which people took back control of the state capitol and other municipalities for more than four months, chased out the repressive state and city police corps and political bosses, seized control of the radio and television airwaves, and constructed an alternative government from below. It was on June 14, when thousands of striking teachers . . .

NarcoNews is offering advance orders of the book for $20 contributions to its Fund for Authentic Journalism. It’s also a way to gauge the size of print run this small publisher should start with.

Nancy and her partner George Salzman are two Americans living in Oaxaca since 1999. George writes that they first went there to “‘give it a try’ for six months,” and now,

I now think of myself as a Oaxaqueño — yes, still a gringo — but at heart Oaxaqueño.

He and Nancy have been filing reports from Oaxaca for NarcoNews, Counterpunch, and George’s own website.

They were guests on the mediageek radioshow on November 10 [listen now] and September 15, 2006 [listen now].

Good News: Army Subpoena of Journalist Dropped

Just saw this email from the National Radio Project that came in yesterday:

UPDATE! Journalist Subpoenas Dismissed!
Army prosecutors of Lt. Watada drop two charges
for speaking to the press

January 29, 2007

Two charges of “conduct unbecoming an officer and a gentleman”
have been dropped by the Army-each of which carried a one year
possible prison sentence for vocal Iraq War objector Lt. Ehren
Watada. The two charges were based on interviews with independent
journalist Sarah Olson and Greg Kakesako of the Honolulu
Star-Bulletin. The Army dismissed the subpoenas of these
journalists who, if they had not testified against their source
were faced with felony contempt of court charges, which carried
a sentence of up to six months in prison.

More…
http://www.radioproject.org/watada/

I know I’ve been a bad indy blogger and I haven’t mentioned this important case here at all. But you can turn to John at DIYmedia who interviewed journalist Sarah Olson for the special NCMR January 12 edition of Media Minutes [MP3 link].

NCMR Panel: Make Music with Your Mouth, Kid: Hip-Hop Activism

This panel was certainly the most fun and the most thought-provoking of all the panels I’ve been to at the NCMR. It’s nearly impossible for me to summarize because each presenter brought a unique perspective and set of facts to lay on the audience. But, as the title of the panel suggests, all the presenters were united by hiphop, either as musicians, DJs, organizers or activists.

Malkia Cyril started off the session with some rhymes, and Brotha Los ended his presentation with a song of his own. Having the uniting element of music woven into the fabric of the session really loosened up the room but also kept our attention focused.

Hiphop is alternative media and an important form of communication. And hiphop is affected and repressed by media consolidation, with Clear Channel growing at the expense of independently owned black stations, and then dominating the selection of ultra-commercialized artists who get heard.

Yet the larger question of the panel really was organizing and activism, with hiphop more as a means rather than the subject itself. Although it was all good, Rosa Clemente, a radio host at WBAI in New York, was a highlight. She reminded all of us that the issue of justice is framed by white supremacy, which cannot be denied and must addressed.

Clemente recalled that the history of independent media in the US really starts with black people, with Frederick Douglass and Ida B. Wells. And nobody remembers that Juan Gonzalez, of Democracy Now, was a Young Lord, working on the group’s newspaper in the 1960s.

She concluded that if progressives are no longer thinking about Katrina, but worrying about 2008 and whether or not we can get Hillary elected, then “we don’t have an analysis.”

To me, this session was about youth and organizing and having a far more inclusive media environment where talk of race and gender isn’t limited to discussing the topic of diversity, but part of all the media reform and justice conversations.

It’s a very important and necessary point, and still not obvious in the media reform movement. I do think Free Press has made observable effort to be more inclusive with the NCMR — there has been much improvement since the 1st conference in 2003. But there’s far to go, and the conversation within the movement has really only begun. And, really, I don’t think the mainstream white media reformers in Memphis right now have these issues in their consciousness.

I recommend listening to this panel when it gets posted to the Free Press schedule page. They’ve been pretty fast getting the audio online, so we can probably expect to see it tomorrow.

Technorati Tag: NCMR2007

Taiwan Pirates Protest for Communications Freedom

The Taiwan radio pirates certainly know how the value of banding together to fight against the selling off of the public airwaves. According to the Taipei Times, last week pirate broadcasters held protests in front of the National Communications Commission, their version of the FCC.

Held back by rows of police in riot gear, angry protesters spat at pictures of commission members and burnt copies of the Constitution over what they said was the NCC’s lack of legitimacy.

“The threshold that the NCC has set for licensed stations is NT$50 million [US$1.5 million] in assets and capital, which puts licensing totally out of reach of independent operators,” said Tsai Chi-feng (蔡吉豐), a pirate radio station owner.

The NCC has apparently been cracking down on pirates, reportedly shutting down 500 (!) stations this year. That’s an amazing number of busts, and only indicates to me that there must be many times that number of stations in operation in that nation of 22 million.

And the intensity of the Taiwan pirates’ protest is a clear indicator of the importance of radio as an inexpensive and powerful communications medium–made all the more apparent by the artificially high cost-of-entry imposed by the NCC.

Update from Oaxaca: “In the face of repression, quiet determination, dignity.”

Nancy Davies and George Salzman have written two new updates from Oaxaca and posted them on the web:

Last Sunday, 10 Dec, the popular movement held its eighth mega-march, the first large manifestation following the imposition of a virtual state of siege imposed by the federal armed forces on 25 and 26 November. Nancy Davies’ comments on the march are posted at

http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-12-11.htm

and some comments of mine that relate to the state of the struggle, and its nature are posted at

http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-12-12.htm

Here’s hoping next year will be better than this one.

Best wishes,
George

In case you missed it, I spoke with Nancy and George on the November 10 edition of the radioshow, which is available for download. You can also listen right away in your browser.

Revving up the Dirty War in Oaxaca

George Salzman has sent another update from the situation in Oaxaca, Mexico, which he has posted in full at his own website:

Oaxaca, Saturday 11 Nov 2006

Friends,

The Oaxaca State and Mexican federal governments are unleashing a dirty war against the widespread social rebellion in Oaxaca, in the hope of smashing it as clandestinely as possible, i.e. out of view of the rest of the world. Please help spread the word as much as you can to help keep the repressive forces at bay. I just posted a new item,

Revving up the dirty war in Oaxaca

at http://site.www.umb.edu/faculty/salzman_g/Strate/2006-11-11.htm .

It reads in part, “The intensity of this surge of state-imposed terror became so flagrant in the past few days that on Thursday 9 Nov APPO [The Popular Assembly of the Peoples of Oaxaca] asked the diocese of Oaxaca to grant asylum to its members – particularly its prominent members who are under threat of assassination. The legal officer of the local Catholic hierarchy, speaking officially, responded promptly – the same day – positively, and with a scathing indictment of the lawless state behavior, asserting in part that there exists “state terrorism and a schizophrenic persecution”.

This struggle, as all such popular efforts in opposition to government repression, needs all the international solidarity it can get. Thanks for whatever you can do to help.

All best wishes,
George