With the scene of a hitman pointing at a weapon to a photojournalist ready to capture the image, concludes the short film ‘The Shooting’, presented this Monday in Mexico City by the organization Article 19.
“We shoot for the truth. They shoot us to silence ourselves. More than 200 journalists have been killed and missing in Mexico, being one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the press,” reads a final message that appears immediately after.
In less than four minutes, the short film seeks to “avoid denial” in the face of the violence facing journalists in the country, said Pedro Cárdenas, a protection and defense officer of article 19 in Mexico, a leading organization in defense of press freedom.
“One of the great problems we have seen with the authorities is the denial to which the events are happening (…) or that have occurred, or the denial that they are in impunity,” Cárdenas said.
“Now that we see the terrible made in Jalisco, one of the answers we have seen of some authorities (…) It is that it is not true that the information is another, (or that) the gravity with which it is presented is not happening, when there are journalistic photographs in which we see everything there was,” he added, in reference to the alleged field of training of drug trafficking in Teuchitlán, in Jalisco.
He also stressed that with the presentation of the film, which coincides with the International Day for Access to the Truth, an awareness campaign begins that will culminate on May 4, when the International Press Day is commemorated.
Read more: Trump contemplates exceptions in the imposition of reciprocal tariffs in April
‘The Shooting’, a short film that denounces the violence the press in Mexico
The short film was conducted in conjunction with the Gray Mexico advertising agency and the Eastern Films audiovisual producer.
Alexis Ospina, from Gray Mexico, mentioned that what most inspired him to participate in this project was the need to arouse consciences about the reality of journalism in Mexico.
“I wish there were not these data and these statistics that inspire these types of ideas and that everyone could exercise their profession safely,” Gray said.
In 2024, article 19 documented four murders of journalists related to their journalistic work in Mexico, in addition to the discovery of the remains of another journalist who had been reported as disappeared since 2022.
So far from 2025, the NGO has registered five killed journalists. In three of these cases, it has been confirmed that the crime is related to its profession, while in the other two cases they continue to investigate and the same reason is not ruled out, Cárdenas said.
Actor Germán Valdez, who plays one of the photographers who cover a shooting in the short film, shared that he was not aware of the dangers faced by journalists in the country.
“I ‘fell twenty.’
Since 2000, article 19 has documented the murder of 171 journalists and the disappearance of another 31 in Mexico.
With EFE information.
Do you like photos and news? Follow us on our Instagram
Follow business information and today in Forbes Mexico
