S1: Welcome in San Diego. It's Jade Hindman on this episode of KPBS Midday Edition , I talk with veteran journalist Vicente Calderon about his career on both sides of the border. This is KPBS Midday Edition. Connecting our communities through conversation. Hey , this is Spanish Heritage Month. We're featuring voices making waves in the community. Vicente Calderon is a veteran journalist with more than 40 years experience on both sides of the border. He got his start in radio in the mid 80s , and he would go on to work as a TV anchor and reporter in both Tijuana and Los Angeles. And in 2004 , Vicente created Tijuana Press , Tijuana's first digital news site , and that's where he works today as editor in chief. On top of all his day daily deadlines , Vicente is also a fierce defender of press freedom. Every year , he brings awareness to the ongoing issue of violence against journalists in Mexico. Vicente Calderon joins me now to talk about his life's work. Welcome back to Midday Edition , Vicente.
S2: Thank you for having me on again.
S1: Glad to have you here. So tell me , what's your earliest memory of wanting to become a journalist?
S2: Actually , it wasn't because I didn't thought about being a journalist until I got into. I graduated as a psychologist and I wanted to talk about mental health in the 80s. That was kind of a taboo issue , and the only idea I got was I can get closer to the media , to the local press , and try to talk about mental health. I'm very glad to hear that things have been changing in that sense , and we have that as an issue that is in top of mind of many people. No. Wow.
S1: Wow. No , it's it's great. It's great. Um , tell me about the early days of your career working in radio in Tijuana. What did that experience teach you? Were you able to use your psychology background then?
S2: I think so. At least has been helping me to stay healthy. Kind of in a kind of way in this environment that we are facing as journalists. No , it was just an accident. I began as a DJ in a local kind of Mexican music country music station , and they gave me the opportunity to work on news because wasn't very common that people , young people , was doing radio news at the time. And I worked my way to the newscast , and then I moved to television , and they assigned me in the late 80s to cover the Hispanic community of San Diego. And that's when I began to go across the border every day , because that was possible in those years. How attached to that would be very , very difficult to complete today in the current conditions of the border , right?
S1: I mean , okay , so from being a DJ to , uh , like radio newscast , then you went on to work in TV both in Tijuana and Los Angeles. What was different about being a TV reporter and anchor in those two cities? And then compare that to San Diego , too?
S2: It is very , very complicated because at the beginning we used to I learned from older people who are my colleagues who work very generous to teach me how to learn to do the craft , because , again , I was an empirical reporter with no formal training. And for example , when I began in radio or even in television , we used to write like we used to write for newspaper print. And and I learned that how the television in San Diego was a lot more specific. And you have to work with images. But even the , the the principles , the ethical guidelines were the same. You have to follow new ways to , be able to express yourself in a minute and a half. For example , for a television report , compared to what we used to have. And again , at that time the television was growing in Tijuana but was way behind what was we were seeing in San Diego. And when I went to LA. The level of of , uh , current sophistication. But I don't want to label that. But the organization that I was working with , Telemundo , was in a bigger league , and that was kind of a even when it was a local television station , was the number one market in Spanish for , for , for the US. And so they had a lot more resources. And that was the main , main difference , the lack of resources from our peers in Mexico compared to what they have in the US. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. That's that's interesting. In 2004 , um , you went on you created the the news website Tijuana Press. Com and at the time , it was the first digital only news portal for the Tijuana San Diego region. What was your original vision for the site?
S2: Well , this will be the an opportunity to bring ethical international principles on journalism. We came from a country with a lot of state controlled media for many decades in Mexico , until the 2001. We have the political changes here , but things are still very difficult in the influence of the government on media outlets is still very strong. So I thought that having an independent outlet based on the new technology that was the internet in those years will give us a lot of freedom. Uh , it did , but also brought , as you or everybody knows now , the internet , the digital age brought a lot of opportunities , but a lot of new challenges for for journalism practice. So we are still trying to deal , Trying to adapt. We began as a daily news original content platform and now are more like a information and analysis from a binational perspective platform , and also trying to help the workers of the press in Mexico , particularly not necessarily the other media companies , but the the labor force , the reporters who are still dealing with difficult conditions.
S1: Um , wow. So very necessary. And congratulations on the success of that. What are some of the biggest challenges to working as a journalist in Tijuana today?
S2: Well , silicon First is the difficult , precarious conditions of the salaries , but the other ones are obviously the pressure from the government and the risk from organized crime is not that everybody is on the , uh , on the side of the organized crime , but it's something that can jump any moment. So reporters here have here. Have still have to consider self-censorship in a way to maintain their maintain their safety. It's not over. We are not risking our lives. I'm always against the idea of a reporter as an action hero , because that is not reality. You can go out and do stories without any problems , but there are some issues to come , become tricky , or even sometimes a traffic accident could become dangerous if the people involved is linked or tied to organized crime. So those are the main things , along with the new administration , from the federal to the state to the local government that is pressuring reporters. And they think they don't need the reporters because they can communicate through social media or the internet or their own websites. It's not very different from what you guys are seeing. When I began , I was looking to the US as the beacon of freedom of the press. Suddenly it looks like here is an area is looking more similar to what we were facing on this side of the border in the current conditions.
S1: Right , right. Hey , listen , I know that you you're you're passionate about , you know , spreading this awareness about violence against journalists in Mexico. And so far this year , at least seven journalists have been killed , according to the. That's according to the International Press Institute. So , you know , you mentioned organized crime. What are some of the other big factors driving this violence?
S2: Well , right now , I think one that hasn't been too much to talk about is the condition of the organized crime and the repercussion of the changes of the policies in the US. It has been there , if you dig in too much into a story about the corruption and organized crime or illegal activity or drug trafficking , you can get in jeopardy because there's a lot of the level of impunity is too high. But right now , we I don't think the government is prepared to deal with the this for example lack of resources from the traffic the cartel organizations. So with the new policies , let's say illegal immigration taken away from them as a big piece of their market. So what are these people is going to be doing? They're going to turn to local , different type of crimes , because that is no longer as much active as it used to be. I'm not quite sure if I'm explaining myself , but for example , it used to be that the cartels were in charge , not just the trafficking drugs , but drug trafficking people. We have seen a decrease on the number of people being trafficked. Mainly the ones who are being trafficked are paying way more now. But those drug cartels members are not going to go to learn any other trade , like plumbers or electricians and working on different things. They're going to start doing more other , other type of crimes like extortion. It's a big problem of extortion in Mexico , and Tijuana is not an exception. So these are the things that we are facing right now that the new scenario that we are facing , between how the Mexican government is pushing more law enforcement against cartels in Mexico , but also the new policies from the US that are conflating here in Tijuana and giving us a more complex scenario. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. Also , you know , as we talk about , um , press safety and , and press freedom , too , it makes me think about a conversation we had on the show just yesterday unpacking President Trump's White House press ban for certain news outlets. When you look at these ongoing attacks against journalists , what does it say about the freedom of the press today?
S2: It's very concerning because many public officials and many group of interests take that as a cue to go against the press. It's not that we don't have that here. I mean , especially the last president , Manuel Lopez Obrador , and the current one are very adamant against the press. The for example , the current president has said that they will not provide public advertising to media outlets that are critical of her. So when they see that even in , again , the white House , the beacon of the freedom of the press for many years , they are turning to fight the independent or critical media. It's just like the reinforcing this kind of attitude. So this is the the situation that we are dealing is not just our organized crime , but also the government pressures and different ways to be cornering the independent media in Mexico.
S1: As someone who tells Tijuana stories all day , every day , what do you think major news outlets get wrong when covering Tijuana?
S2: Well , they focus only on the sexy stories. That has been a problem from my early days , and I still see that we have been improving. You guys have been doing a Great , great work. But still it's I mean , I understand because there's so many years in San Diego , you know , in your country right now that is difficult to find resources to also focus on other and the other side of the community. But we have a region that is really binational. The interactions are changing , is more difficult to become a binational community because the current policies. But still it's a lot going on , and we need to move beyond those kind of sexy stories the crime , the pollution , the corruption. We do have that. And I think we should find more ways to collaborate to to be able to improve our coverage on both sides of the world , because we have the same problem from Mexican outlets when they try to cover the Hispanic community or the US in general. Hmm.
S1: Hmm. You know , you mentioned the , the , the binational region , and I know you've collaborated with a number of journalists in San Diego , including Voice of San Diego's Mackenzie Elmore. Can you tell me more about that partnership between the two of you?
S2: Well , that was a very generous collaboration in the sense that first people in San Diego was looking for ways to help the media in Tijuana , and from that , we had come up with some ideas. This began from the days of the pandemic and the Covid 19 , but ended up being frustrated for that reason. Exactly. And we turned to other issues that were affecting both communities. Water is a problem. They are the hydro. The water crisis is present in both sides , but it has been approached in very different ways. Um , and this is something that is , I mean , finding commonly here the generosity of the reporters on many of the media outlets or trade organizations of the US , with myself , particularly with the Mexican press in general , and this has helped us to develop new skills because also the craft is the same , but the particularities to work as a reporter can be different in Mexico , in the US. So I think I'm very thankful for the people of The Voice , as I am with KPBS. In the 2008 or 9 , we did a big collaboration with a digital map that was very successful to explain the beginning of the moment of the drug war at the time. So I'm seeing that this is a way to go. Collaboration across the border , across different , um , media outlets from both sides of the border.
S1: Um , you know , we're having this conversation during Hispanic Heritage Month. What is your hope for the next generation of journalists on both sides of the border?
S2: Well , that they need to go back to the basics as it sounds. And I know I sound like an old man because that's a that's what I am. But , uh , this is still what is more important. We we saw an improvement in the press. And I have to say that a woman in a big part of the progress of the Mexican press , there's great journalism being done in Mexico. But on the same way , the digital era , the social media and now AI can make , bring , bring back some risk and more misinformation. We have we are in the middle. We are beginning a electoral cycle in Mexico , and we see a lot of quote unquote , new outlets , media outlets that are promoting different candidates or different interests. We need to train the reporters. And I know that we have a history of resilience in the Mexican press , that this is the one who gave me hope that even in these conditions , we're going to be able will be better for both of us if we collaborate across the borders.
S1: Yeah , the stakes are high around the globe for sure. Yes , yes , I've been speaking with Vicente Calderon. He's a veteran journalist with more than 40 years experience on both sides of the border. He's founder and editor in chief of Tijuana Press. Vicente , thank you so much.
S2: Thank you. Gina. I always appreciated your time.
S1: That's our show for today. I'm your host , Jade Hindman. Thanks for tuning in to Midday Edition. Be sure to have a great day on purpose , everyone.
