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Sunday, June 28
Global Free Speech

A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire, in Cointzio, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026, following the death of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho.” Photo by: AP Photo/Armando Solis, File When I heard the horrifying news of tourists being shot at the Teotihuacán pyramids in Mexico (one Canadian woman was killed), I was struck by a detail – the number of people who wished to remain anonymous when interviewed by the media. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. For years Mexico was the deadliest place to be a journalist – the media caught between murderous cartels and corrupt officials. The country no longer occupies the number one spot (that goes to Gaza where 53 press members were killed in 2025), but it’s still an incredibly dangerous place to be a reporter. Between October 2024 and October 2025 10 journalists were killed. All of which impacts people’s willingness to go on the record. The journalists’ killings are part of a wider context of extreme violence in Mexico, laid bare two months ago when masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel went on a rampage to avenge the killing of their leader “El Mencho” by security forces. Yes, the Teotihuacán pyramids’ attack seems to have been carried out by a lone assailant with no apparent links to cartels. But violence begets violence – the backdrop counts. The current Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has condemned the attack on tourists and called for a thorough investigation. Will that happen in a meaningful way? The jury is out. Sheinbaum is not her predecessor when it comes to freedom of expression (Andrés Manuel López Obrador was actually crowned our Tyrant of the Year in 2022 due to his hostility to the media; Sheinbaum is slightly better here). Both leaders though have in different ways struggled to fully confront and discuss the country’s violence. Sheinbaum says the problem is getting better, citing declining murder rates. Others dispute this, pointing to things like the growing numbers of forced disappearances, which don’t count as murder. Obrador did the same. He proclaimed femicide figures had dropped under his leadership, except he narrowed the reporting period to the lowest point, ignoring the time when the numbers rose under him. Anyone who highlighted this was derided as an enemy of Mexico (as we reported in 2023). It’s easy to understand why both leaders would want to downplay the violence – it’s hardly a great look politically, nor does it position Mexico as a “top holiday destination”. And with Mexico hosting the World Cup in June, it’s an extra-sensitive moment. Sadly such tactics don’t stop the realities on the ground. The opposite in fact – they feed into the climate of impunity, where ordinary people are so intimidated they are reluctant to bear witness, even to random attacks, for fear of becoming victims of violence themselves. READ MORE

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A soldier stands guard by a charred vehicle after it was set on fire, in Cointzio, Mexico, Feb. 22, 2026, following the death of the leader of the Jalisco New Generation Cartel, Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho.” Photo by: AP Photo/Armando Solis, File When I heard the horrifying news of tourists being shot at the Teotihuacán pyramids in Mexico (one Canadian woman was killed), I was struck by a detail – the number of people who wished to remain anonymous when interviewed by the media. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. For years Mexico was the deadliest place to be a journalist – the media caught between murderous cartels and corrupt officials. The country no longer occupies the number one spot (that goes to Gaza where 53 press members were killed in 2025), but it’s still an incredibly dangerous place to be a reporter. Between October 2024 and October 2025 10 journalists were killed. All of which impacts people’s willingness to go on the record. The journalists’ killings are part of a wider context of extreme violence in Mexico, laid bare two months ago when masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel went on a rampage to avenge the killing of their leader “El Mencho” by security forces. Yes, the Teotihuacán pyramids’ attack seems to have been carried out by a lone assailant with no apparent links to cartels. But violence begets violence – the backdrop counts. The current Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has condemned the attack on tourists and called for a thorough investigation. Will that happen in a meaningful way? The jury is out. Sheinbaum is not her predecessor when it comes to freedom of expression (Andrés Manuel López Obrador was actually crowned our Tyrant of the Year in 2022 due to his hostility to the media; Sheinbaum is slightly better here). Both leaders though have in different ways struggled to fully confront and discuss the country’s violence. Sheinbaum says the problem is getting better, citing declining murder rates. Others dispute this, pointing to things like the growing numbers of forced disappearances, which don’t count as murder. Obrador did the same. He proclaimed femicide figures had dropped under his leadership, except he narrowed the reporting period to the lowest point, ignoring the time when the numbers rose under him. Anyone who highlighted this was derided as an enemy of Mexico (as we reported in 2023). It’s easy to understand why both leaders would want to downplay the violence – it’s hardly a great look politically, nor does it position Mexico as a “top holiday destination”. And with Mexico hosting the World Cup in June, it’s an extra-sensitive moment. Sadly such tactics don’t stop the realities on the ground. The opposite in fact – they feed into the climate of impunity, where ordinary people are so intimidated they are reluctant to bear witness, even to random attacks, for fear of becoming victims of violence themselves. READ MORE

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When I heard the horrifying news of tourists being shot at the Teotihuacán pyramids in Mexico (one Canadian woman was killed), I was struck by a detail – the number of people who wished to remain anonymous when interviewed by the media. I probably shouldn’t have been surprised. For years Mexico was the deadliest place to be a journalist – the media caught between murderous cartels and corrupt officials. The country no longer occupies the number one spot (that goes to Gaza where 53 press members were killed in 2025), but it’s still an incredibly dangerous place to be a reporter. Between October 2024 and October 2025 10 journalists were killed. All of which impacts people’s willingness to go on the record.

The journalists’ killings are part of a wider context of extreme violence in Mexico, laid bare two months ago when masked gunmen from the Jalisco New Generation Cartel went on a rampage to avenge the killing of their leader “El Mencho” by security forces. Yes, the Teotihuacán pyramids’ attack seems to have been carried out by a lone assailant with no apparent links to cartels. But violence begets violence – the backdrop counts.

The current Mexican president, Claudia Sheinbaum, has condemned the attack on tourists and called for a thorough investigation. Will that happen in a meaningful way? The jury is out. Sheinbaum is not her predecessor when it comes to freedom of expression (Andrés Manuel López Obrador was actually crowned our Tyrant of the Year in 2022 due to his hostility to the media; Sheinbaum is slightly better here). Both leaders though have in different ways struggled to fully confront and discuss the country’s violence. Sheinbaum says the problem is getting better, citing declining murder rates. Others dispute this, pointing to things like the growing numbers of forced disappearances, which don’t count as murder. Obrador did the same. He proclaimed femicide figures had dropped under his leadership, except he narrowed the reporting period to the lowest point, ignoring the time when the numbers rose under him. Anyone who highlighted this was derided as an enemy of Mexico (as we reported in 2023).

It’s easy to understand why both leaders would want to downplay the violence – it’s hardly a great look politically, nor does it position Mexico as a “top holiday destination”. And with Mexico hosting the World Cup in June, it’s an extra-sensitive moment. Sadly such tactics don’t stop the realities on the ground. The opposite in fact – they feed into the climate of impunity, where ordinary people are so intimidated they are reluctant to bear witness, even to random attacks, for fear of becoming victims of violence themselves.

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Global Free Speech

Photo by: Stephen Barnes/Medical/Alamy UK news this week is dominated by a damning report led by senior midwife Donna Ockenden that reveals how more than 500 mothers and babies were harmed or died at maternity units in Nottingham. This isn’t the first scandal Ockenden has investigated. A few years back terrible failings were revealed in Shropshire hospitals run by the Shrewsbury and Telford NHS Trust where 201 babies and nine mothers died.  We spoke to Ockenden for the magazine and she repeated this: “women aren’t listened to”. Another common thread was cover-up. Secrecy is not a one-off, it’s a pattern, wrote Martin Bright when he reported on the Shropshire scandal for Index. As Bright said, “this is not a historical story; it is an ongoing crisis”. Maternity scandals happen not only in Britain but all over the world. Last year’s protests in Morocco were ignited after eight women died in a maternity ward in Agadir because of severe medical neglect. In Egypt last week Omnia Sweidan, a former resident physician in obstetrics and gynaecology at Alexandria’s El-Shatby University Hospital, wrote a Facebook post detailing a series of abusive incidents faced by women at Alexandria’s Al-Shatby Hospital. It was read and shared by tens of thousands. Within 24 hours of posting, instead of the government declaring an investigation, security forces arrested Sweidan. While she was apparently later released, she’s been accused of spreading false news and misusing social media. She could end up in jail. Meanwhile, Afghanistan has one of the highest maternal mortality rates in the world – the figures of deaths and injuries are rising, but to what no one really knows. The Taliban won’t publish the data, probably to cover-up the true numbers. I’ve navigated maternity services myself in the UK. I’ve generally had good experiences and I’m very grateful to the NHS. But my experiences have not been uncomplicated – my daughter very nearly died. What saved her, I’ve been told, were a few factors – my race (white), my class (middle), where I live (London) and the fact that I relentlessly badgered those at my local hospital for weeks on end saying things didn’t feel right. Let me be clear here though: one shouldn’t have to be a dogged white Londoner to get good medical care. And a recent health committee report revealed terrible inequalities faced by people who are members of ethnic minorities, stating that “[B]abies that are Black or Black British Asian or Asian British have a more than 50% higher risk of perinatal mortality”. At Index we typically work on stories where dissidents take on the powerful: leaders, oligarchs and tech bros. The victims of maternity care scandals might not appear the same. But there is much that unites them. At the end of the day if the response you get from a doctor or nurse to a basic medical request is a shrug or a sneer, your free speech is being violated. If the systems view calls for accountability as dissent that must be silenced, then they are censoring. We grew up being told we’re lucky, that childbirth was one of the leading causes of death before the advent of modern medicine. For many of us that’s true. Just not all of us. That’s a travesty demanding urgent attention – in Nottingham and beyond. READ MORE

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