From November 30 to December 3, 2009 the School of Political and Social Sciences of the Autonomous National University of Mexico (UNAM) and the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) are to hold a workshop titled “The Press’s Armor Against Violence.”

The UNAM and the IAPA, concerned at the serious situation facing Mexican journalists, have pooled their abilities and resources to offer this workshop, which will feature speakers from Argentina, Brazil., Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Mexico, Peru, Puerto Rico and the United States to share their experiences, strategies and methods of practicing freedom of expression in unsafe environments.

The workshop is designed for members of the press interested in learning of the experiences, tools and resources in developing a way to work in more safety against a background of violence, as well as students of Communications in their sophomore year and senior year or in the process of taking professional examinations.

The objective is to re-assess the importance of freedom of expression as one of the fundamental rights underpinning democracy; learn about and review international experiences of violence against journalists and news media in order to adopt ways of preventing and responding to it; provide journalists with creative new resources to do their investigations, news reports and features; offer journalists tools to detect risks and make their work safer, with the ability to create their own security strategy, and encourage in the journalists an ethical approach to the job given the responsibility that it means to inform the public, so that freely and individually or collectively correct decisions can be taken.

Registration is open until November 29 and costs 2,500 Mexican pesos ($190.00) per participant. The workshop is limited a total of 40 journalists and students. For details of the workshop please go the Web site www.institutodeprensa.com.