Javier Garza
Javier Garza is a journalist based in Torreón, México, specializing in security and protection protocols and training for newsrooms and individual journalists. He runs the local news platform Horizonte Lagunero and co-hosts El Noti, one of the most popular news podcasts in México. He has extensive experience covering violence and organized crime. From 2006 to 2013, he was the editorial director of El Siglo de Torreón, one of the most critical newspapers in northern México. In response to violence by organized crime, he developed safety protocols for reporters and editors, which later became a model for other newsrooms in México and Latin America.
He was a 2014 Ochberg Fellow at the Dart Center for Journalism and Trauma and a Knight Fellow at the International Center for Journalists, focusing on digital security. Garza is a Safety Advisor for the World Association of Newspapers. He serves on the boards of international organizations dedicated to press freedom, such as Article 19 and the World Editors Forum. Garza has a bachelor’s degree from Universidad Iberoamericana in Mexico City and a master’s degree from the University of Texas at Austin. In 2022, Columbia University awarded him the Maria Moors Cabot Prize for Journalism in the Americas.