Al Jazeera America launch

I did this article about the launch of Al Jazeera America for the San Francisco Chronicle.

Al Jazeera America launches with praise and a lawsuit

Journalists work to cover their stories and stay alive

Journalists Work to cover their stories and stay alive

This is the first piece I wrote for International Media support on journalism safety and security issues in Colombia, Honduras and Mexico. 

Staying alive and unharmed is the main concern of journalists in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia. But the sounds of silence of journalists who muzzle themselves as a self-defense mechanism may be as much of a concern.

.

That was the consensus of journalists from the three countries who gathered in the northern port city of Barrancabermeja, Colombia in late April for an international forum on Security, Safety and Self-Censorship.

“We have to find ways that journalists can report on sensitive topics without exposing themselves to unnecessary risks,” said Urban Lofqvist, director of  the Swedish chapter of Reporters Without Borders, an organizer of the event.  Other sponsors included Colombia’s Foundation for Press Freedom, or FLIP, the Swedish chapter of Reporters with Borders and IMS. 

Barrancabermeja was an apt spot for the forum; the city has been a historical hot spot for Colombia’s internal conflict and journalists here still feel the heat when they report on violence related to politics or organized crime.

“In Santander, there are cases where journalists do not go into depth in stories about situations that impact the society; when they (might) became targets,” said veteran journalist Diro César Gonzalez, editor and owner of the Barrancabermeja weekly,  “La Tarde.,”  Barrancabermeja is located in the department of Santander.

Gonzalez has been under protective guard from a government security team since 2006, when he first began receiving death threats. He is protected under a Colombia law that reviews the situations of journalists and members of 15 other vulnerable groups, providing bodyguards and bulletproof vehicles for those who need them.

It’s why Gonzalez can hide in plain sight, celebrating his birthday with forum attendees at a local restaurant.  “I love being a journalist and I really don’t know how to do anything else.,“ he said. “Not even being a janitor.”

But his light-hearted remarks don’t mean Gonzalez takes the deadly business of journalism lightly. Colombian journalists may have a slight edge on their colleagues in Honduras and Mexico, because they do get some protection.

Mexico’s legislature just passed a bill that would allow journalists to request federal intervention in attacks against them, and is pending approval by the president.

There is talk, but no action, about similar efforts in Honduras.

At the forum, participants agreed no journalist in Honduras, Mexico or Colombia has it easy. In Mexico, attacks against journalists are so common that many news media no longer run stories about drug cartels. 

The hacked-up bodies of photojournalist Daniel Martinez Balzasua, 22, and another young man, were found April 24 in Saltillo, in northern Mexico, the latest victim of an apparent drug-cartel killing.  Coincidentally, this was the same day the Barrancabermeja forum took place.

The Committee to Protect Journalists said in a February report that 12 Mexican journalists went missing in 2006-2012 and 14 were killed because of their work. Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission says 81 journalists have been killed since 2000.

In Honduras, with the world’s highest homicide rate –  drug gangs also have journalists under the gun.  According to ???? 19 journalists have been killed since 1992, with 15 of those cases never investigated.

“Covering hard issues is a part of my life,” said Xiomara Orellana, who has been an investigative reporter with for Diario La Prensa of  San Pedro Sula, Honduras for eight years., with no intentions of stopping. “One learns to live with danger. The difference is that in Colombia there are some programs that offer protection. We don’t have anything. You survive as you can. You have to live with fear. “

Her colleague, Javier Valdez Cárdenas, a founding reporter for the weekely RioDoce in Sinoloa, Mexico,  says it is important to remember that every deadly incident from the drug cartels impacts people as individuals.

“To just count the dead is to the contribute to people’s problems,” he said. “Talk about people not numbers. We do the journalism that is possible in impossible conditions.”

Colombian journalists  have learned to do this. In the northern Columbia city of Monteria, Ginna Morelo, editor of El Meridiano de Cordoba and her colleague, Nydia Serrano, of the competing El Universal, say threats come regularly. In January, two journalists from another Monteria newspaper had to leave the country after they received death threats from members of a drug gang.

Serrano noted six of the 16 journalists killed in Colombia during the past 20 years were from her home state of Cordoba.  “What’s important now is for the story to get out,” she said. “So for safety, we don’t think about exclusivity anymore, but about sharing the information for our own security.”

Morelo says when she goes into the field  to cover a story she checks in with the town priest and schoolteachers before she makes her rounds so they know she is there.  She is also in constant cell phone communication with her desk.

The number of journalists is killed is down, and the threat, and we feel more secure.,” she said. The statistics are correct, but that’s because we don’t tell about 80 percent of what happens in this country.”

In fact, self-censorship has become the name of the game. A recent survey of 700 journalists in Colombia by the Antonio Narino Project found that 79 percent of them admit to engaging in self-censorship for their physical safety, or even just to keep advertisers happy or to hold onto their jobs.

Colombia’s FLIP has tried to get around the issue by helping journalists to publish their work away form their home turf.  “We work with some local journalists who had a problem with self-censorship,” said Andrés Morales, FLIP executive director.  “Their medium did not publish their work for security reasons.  What we did was create agreements or alliances with national media or other outlets so the work could be published.

I’ve had my own exposure to dangerous times in my days as an international correspondent in Central America. But it was nothing like my colleagues faced then or now this people in the cities and countries that are their home. 

“I’m not saying we don’t run risks, but it is under other conditions,” said Arturo Wallace, a Colombia-based correspondent for the BBC.  I”The political cost of expelling an international correspondent is much higher than taking action against a national journalist.”

International correspondents may be tough, but when the going gets tough, well we get to leave. Not these people, who as Mexico’s Javier Valdez Cárdenas says, continue to do “the journalism that is possible in impossible conditions.”

Blog Confusion

Well, now I have two blogs in two different places because I always confuse my logins, rlovler and ronnie lovler.  Soon, I will bring them both together. Note to self.  Get your act together.

Should all be in one place and better written.

Or maybe I can use one of this sites for the writing I will be doing about press issues in Mexico, Honduras and Colombia. Yes, one can be harder-hitting journalism, the other personal musings

That may be the winning combination!

Having a birthday!

Wow...didn't realize how long I had gone without a blog post! This must be remedied. Sept. 19 was my birthday...I was determined to have a nice one this year in Colombia.  Last year, I had only been here just a few weeks and it was quiet and a little bit sad.

Thank you everyone here for making it such a terrific day.  It was a non-spot celebration and I feel good...even the day after!

Started with dinner the night before with my good friend Ernesto Robles, the wonderful photographer from Puerto Rico  We went to one of my favorite restaurants, La Fabricca en Parque #93. It was delightful.

Then the next day -- the actual day of my birthday began with a walk to Hotel Casa Dann Carlton for greetings from my wonderful trainer and exercise coach, Aldo.  Went next to the hair salon where Azusena came through with a cepillada and maquillaje.  I looked beautiful!!  Then home to change and lunch with Sofi in Macarena at Donostio where we had the best fresh tuna ever.  Home again to work with Gladys to get ready for a small gathering at home with Gail, Inez, Nat and Ernesto. Shared some food and wine and good conversation before heading to my favorite club, bar, restaurant -- San Sebastian.  About 14 of us there -- Cristina and Pia, Diego, the five of us from home, Luz, Pam and Mike Farley, Magdalena, Natalia, Jim and Ana and of course owners and hosts, Roberto and Martica.

And throughout the day, being remembered by all my Facebook friends in force.

Thank you everyone for making it such a special day!!

Another Visit to Medellin

OK – this should have been posted weeks ago…but really, there is just never, ever enough time.

This trip to Medellin was at the beginning of the month.  Between then and now, the day I get ready to post this – the very last day of May –I have made my way to Armenia, Laguna de Tota and Paipa en Boyaca and Cartagena, all of which merit separate entries.

As does the work in Bogota with the El Tiempo crime map and the Consejo de Redaccion corruption map, two of the projects I am doing as a Knight International Journalism Fellow here And let’s not forget about the development of the Bogota chapter of Hacks Hackers, something else I have been instrumental in establishing as part of my work here.

But quickly back to Medellin –

I made my way there for an event to mark World Press Freedom Day.

FundaMundo, the new foundation formed by the owners of El Mundo newspaper, a 40-year-old daily in Colombia’s second largest city, hosted the observance. Irene Gaviria, a lawyer and editor of El Mundo said a decision was made last year to change its business model and become a non-profit.

Her family has held most of the stocks in El Mundo since its founding.  She has taken over most of the management from her aging father. And she adamant about maintaining independence and objectivity in her coverage of the city where her brother was recently elected mayor.

Ok, yes, it’s complicated.

Irene is someone who doesn’t wait for things to happen – but strikes me as someone who sets out to make them happen herself. She took advantage of the World Press Freedom Day activities to officially announce the debut of FundaMundo.  I spoke briefly about ICFJ and our activities in Colombia, there. We also heard from Carlos Cortes on Internet freedom. And of course, about 200 members of Medellin’s media world learned about FundaMundo.

I got into Medellin the day before the event and went to a meeting with the Medellin and Antioquia controllers to learn about project working with student controllers.  Could they be possible participants in a citizen journalism effort?

I could go on – I won’t.  But one more thing to add to the Medellin mix that has nothing to do with journalism is the nature park that you get to by riding the metro up the mountain. Spectacular ride, spectacular park with a spectacular few hours spent there. 

Mother's Day in Colombia

Wish I had the pictures, but my camera didn't accompany me today. But we made our own day and it was delightful.   My friend Rosalba and I had a Mother's Day spree, taking ourselves out.  She is a delight -- always a smile, always good cheer, but not a Polyana, just out to enjoy life. She is a good influence. 

We started out at a local hotel -- five star -- that offers a free Sunday of cultural activities every Sunday -- generally kicking off with mass (very Catholic Colombia) an artisan fair,  a musical performane of some kind, and jugglers, clowns and more for the kids (and the adults, too).  It was an unusual day in Bogota -- no rain, which got things off to a really good start. So an outdoor mass was very appropriate. I even sat in on it -- as a good non-Catholic, nice Jewish girl, but it went with the territory and it felt right.

Then wandering around the artisan fair, got myself a pair earrings -- dangling ones which I can now wear again...A glass of wine in the hotel restaurant where we had intended to stay for lunch, but the service was terrible, thank goodness, because we left and went to Usaquen for a totally different experience.

Katmandu -- a little bit of India/Nepal/China/Marrakesh/Iran tucked away in one of Bogota's oldest colonial neighborhoods. Walk into the restaurant and you are walking into a different world. The sounds, the scents, the lighting, the ambiance, the way the tables are arranged and the dancers and musicians. A belly dancer and a drummer from Cordoba (Colombia) who accompanies her, but dressed for the part, looked more like I could have found him on the streets of anywhere but here. He played the darkuba, the drum used for bellydancing, like he was born to it. He wore the robes, the head gear, the earrings like a second skin. And they played to each other as she danced and he played.  Oh, yes, I forgot to mention, the food was great, too! 

Icing on the cake -- not just the dessert -- but they had gifts for all the mothers. Before we opened our  bags, we imagined they had given the moms chocolates. But it was even better -- two bars of scented soaps from Indonesia.  Yes, if I forgot to mention earlier, Mother's Day is a very big deal here. On every street corner, there was someone selling roses.  Wherever I went in the days leading up to My Day/Our Day, everyone wished him a happy mother's Day.  I am not going to make snide remarks here, but just take it at face value. It was nice.

P.S.  There is some hope for the pics, if Rosalba downloads them and sends them to me. And I will post them because we both look like real mamacitas. And that I do want to shre.

East of Bogota

La Minga...Choachi, and La Laguna Ubaque.  Three jewels literally within shouting distance of Bogota, about 50 miles east and a quick getaway from the "trancones", concrete and general stress of urban living in the city of more than 8 million we call home.

The dozen women who took the AWC - organized trip in April ended up with much more than we bargained for -- in the most positive of ways.  The way up was winding road. And we kept going up and up and up -- in fact so far up that we could look down on Monserrate.

Our hosts were the delightful couple who manage the property that is home to La Casa Gestante en La Minga en Choachi when founder and entrepreneur Pedro Molina is not there. Embarrassingly, I misplaced my notepad with their names.  But we got the full tour of what is an amazing piece of architecture and an equally amazing concept –where everything is ecologically sound and environmentally friendly.

All the structures are made of natural materials with construction based on three techniques -- bahareque, which uses timber, bamboo and mud; tapia pisada or stepped walls and adobe. Fruit and vegetables are grown on-site; there is a true roof garden and an ecological refrigerator. The building has a sauna, decks with amazing views surrounded by land that has a running brook, small waterfalls and lush vegetation.  

What makes the place so special is the philosophy behind it -- a belief in a real community give and take. We showed up just a few days after a “treque” where people trade what they have for what they want. Rural neighbors brought vegetables, fruits and plants they had grown, fresh cheeses and more; city visitors brought electrical goods, sporting goods, toys and used clothing. Everyone went away happy.

OK, enough.  The idea is just to give you a sense of the day. From La Minga, one of our organizers had the idea to make an already perfect day even better by driving to the nearby Laguna Ubaque and Choachi.  The lagoon is one of Cundinamarca's best-kept secrets. Those who can have weekend homes. Those who can't are happy with a half hour spent gazing out at the lagoon and in our case, sharing a bottle (or two) of wine.  The day included a quick stop in the town of Choachi, where even in the main plaza you could almost hear the silence.