Former AP Bureau Chief, Katherine Corcoran, On The Realities of Being a Journalists in Mexico

By Sydney Seymour

Posing as a client seeking the services of a seamstress, investigative journalist Katherine Corcoran knocked on her interviewee’s door in Mexico, offering her a card with her dress measurements. Her interviewee looked at the card, revealing Corcoran was a journalist seeking sensitive information about the murder of Regina Martinez. 

In one of the most dangerous places in the world to practice journalism and as the Associated Press bureau chief for Mexico and Central America, Corcoran was responsible for ensuring the safety of not only her team of reporters but herself and her interviewees. In many cases, Corcoran needed to blend in, often using aliases and arranging safer meeting locations, like Mexico City, for her interviews. Covering major stories on state and cartel violence and abuse of authority meant the team needed to take extra precautions like “pre-reporting and intelligence gathering” before sending people out to particularly hot regions. 

“If it was particularly hot, we had to go through a whole series of finding out what we could about what was going on on the ground. Was it safe for journalists to go there? We would have checkpoints so that we would go to this place and ask on the ground, ‘What’s it like if we get to this town?’ Because the locals know. It was very strategic in some cases like that.”

Through intelligence gathering, a checkpoint system, and other tactics, Corcoran kept her team safe, saying no when she needed to. 

“There were cases in Mexico where I would say to my reporters, ‘No, you can’t do that,’ or ‘Turn around,’ and they hate that,” she said. “But you need someone there who’s going to say no.” 

To upcoming journalists who find themselves wanting to report or relocate to a place dangerous for journalists, Corcoran highlighted the importance of having an editor or a boss who understands the dangers.

“Don’t do it on your own. A lot of journalists think we’re cowboys or something, and when I was at the AP, I did not want cowboys. I wanted people who wanted to go home at night,” Corcoran said. “It used to be a very macho kind of profession where that was just part of the job, and you don’t get upset about those things. But we do get upset about those things. We are human beings, and they are human beings. And when you’re burned out, or when you’re having PTSD, or whatever, that person should support you and say that your mental health is important to do your job and whatever kinds of measures you need it’s important that you get them. We need to take care of our journalists.” 

Her advocacy for silenced journalists and her reporting work serve testament to her mission as a journalist: “To put up a mirror to the Mexican government about what was happening in their country in the hope that they would do something.”