Event:

 

PEN American Center, the PEN Club de México, and the Committee to Protect Journalists present:


"State Of Emergency: Censorship By Bullet In Mexico. An Evening of Solidarity with Mexican Journalists."


Tuesday, October 19, 2010, 7 p.m.

The Great Hall, Cooper Union, NY

51 Astor Place, New York

 

PEN Mexico


  


State Of Emergency: Censorship By Bullet In Mexico. An Evening of Solidarity with Mexican Journalists

Featuring readings by:

  • Luis Miguel Aguilar
  • Paul Auster
  • Jon Lee Anderson
  • Don DeLillo
  • Laura Esquivel
  • Alberto Ibargüen
  • José Luis Martínez
  • Victor Manuel Mendiola


And a conversation with Carmen Aristegui (CNN en Español) and Adela Navarro Bello (Tijuana-based Zeta), moderated by Julia Preston(The New York Times).

New York City — At least eight journalists have been murdered in Mexico in 2010 alone and many more have been kidnapped, threatened, or disappeared. As violence soars around the country, press workers in Mexico are regularly attacked by drug traffickers, targeted by corrupt local leaders, and harassed by federal forces. Their persecutors are seldom brought to justice. Still, in towns and cities throughout the country, journalists are daily defying Mexico’s “censorship by bullet” to expose critical truths.

In solidarity with Mexican journalists, PEN American Center, the PEN Club de México, and the Committee to Protect Journalists present State of Emergency: Censorship by Bullet in Mexico, an evening of readings, reflections, and public conversation to be held on Tuesday, October 19 at Cooper Union’s Great Hall (NYC).

 

 

The event will bring attention to this ongoing crisis with readings by authors Paul Auster and Don DeLillo, London-based New Yorker staff writer Jon Lee Anderson (who has reported extensively from Mexico), novelist Laura Esquivel (Like Water for Chocolate), Alberto Ibargüen (President of The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation), José Luis Martínez (Editor of Milenio‘s literary supplement, Laberinto), and poets Victor Manuel Mendiola and Luis Miguel Aguilar.

In addition, Carmen Aristegui (anchor of Aristegui, CNN en Español) and Adela Navarro Bello (general director of the Tijuana-based magazine Zeta) will join Pulitzer Prize-winning correspondent for The New York Times Julia Preston to discuss what can be done on both sides of the border to stem the violence and fortify free expression.

These renowned writers and journalists from Mexico and the U.S. will reflect on the current situation on the ground and explore a range of urgent questions: What is the impact of soaring drug-related violence on freedom of expression and civil society in Mexico? Is the United States helping to promote or to counter the violence? What can human rights organizations and the international community do to confront criminal syndicates and other “non-state actors” that are operating with impunity in Mexico and around the world? Above all, what is it like to be a journalist in Mexico today, and what must be done to ensure that journalists can safely carry out their work?

This event is co-sponsored by The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation and The Cooper Union.

 

Atentamente,

Jennifer Clement
President
 Aline Davidoff
Vice President
PEN México