>> this week, "global 3000" goes to costa rica. in four years, the small country wants to be climate neutral. to reach that goal, coffee cultivation has to change. then we head for south africa, where unemployment is a big problem. we meet women who take the initiative to become self-sufficient. but, first, we look at mexico, a dangerous place for journalists who report on politicians and the drug mafia. at least 57 journalists were murdered worldwide in 2016. they were assassinated or killed while on assignment. in the last decade, the number of journalists who have been killed for doing their job numbers at least 695.

it has been especially dangerous for members of the media working in syria, afghanistan, iraq, and yemen. with its convoluted relationship between politics and organized crime, the most dangerous country outside a war zone is mexico. >> the power of the pen. in his work, political cartoonist rafael pineda exposes the dangers that journalists face in mexico. rafael: mexico's not a good place for freedom of expression. we're attacked, tortured, kidnapped, murdered. >> rafael pineda's work makes him a thorn in the side of mexico's drug kingpins and corrupt politicians. that puts his life in danger. rafael: once, after a party, i got in the car.

it was early in the morning, a grey day. and then i saw a message that had been left on the back of the car -- "keep quiet." i saw it in the rearview mirror. i was badly shaken. >> he defied the threat and carried on working. pineda knows he can't expect any protection from the police or the courts. on the contrary -- rafael: if a journalist is found murdered, they're made out to be a criminal. no one bothers trying to investigate if the work they were doing might have had something to do with their death. >> pineda's fears are justified. miroslava breach was an investigative reporter shot dead in her car outside her home. she was setting off to take her son to school. the hit man who killed her was sent by a drugs cartel. why? to find out, we head to ciudad juarez on the u.s.-mexican border. it's home to powerful drug cartels and some of the worst violence in the country.

anyone brave enough to report on the situation is living on borrowed time. the newspaper "norte" was founded 27 years ago. it's had a turbulent history. its offices have been torched and robbed. even shots have been fired here. >> it was an attack. that's a pretty standard way of threatening, intimidating, and silencing the press in mexico. specifically, investigative reporters who are doing important work. >> miroslava breach refused to stop reporting for the paper on the ties between politicians and the drug cartels. she cast a light on shady dealings and angered a lot of people. miroslava: a critical voice was silenced. a voice that was loudly denouncing corruption. >> reporters say the mexican state is part of the problem and

does nothing to protect them. 99% of all murders in the country go unpunished. the newspaper closed down for its own protection. miroslava: we've seen what happens with journalists in mexico. all the crimes that go unpunished. nothing happens. the fact that we've closed down is a final, definitive, and significant protest so that people hear us. >> a press that's been silenced. that's exactly what the drug cartels and their criminal associates want. carlos barranco was friends with miroslava breach, the slain journalist. he admired her tenacity. she'd refused to be cowed. carlos: i feel desperate, helpless, and deeply frustrated. i don't understand why we journalists are the ones paying the price. the actual criminals are getting off scot-free.

>> carlos barranco doesn't want to hide. he's about to give a radio interview although fear casts a long shadow over his life. carlos: the problem with the drug mafia is that it's an invisible enemy. anyone who says they're not afraid of them must be lying. >> he thinks the safest place for him is in the public eye. barranco wants everyone to be aware that journalists are dying and their killers remain at large because the politicians and the police are all in the cartels' pocket. carlos: what happened to miroslava and the others is only the tip of the iceberg. the root of the problem lies in the ties between the government and organized crime. they're all in it together. >> carlos barranco knows his work puts him on their blacklist. before this report was finished,

mexico's best-known investigative journalist, javier valdez, was dragged from his car and shot 12 times in broad daylight. seven journalists have been murdered for reporting on the drug cartels in mexico this year alone. the country's press have taken to the streets in protest. "no to silence, no to self-censorship, no to fear," they say. "we have to continue investigating and reporting." among the demonstrators is political cartoonist rafael pineda. rafael: journalism depends on information. and information is our common property. we would be failing society if we stopped what we do. then people would have no basis for making informed decisions. >> that's why he and his colleagues refuse to be silenced.

>> in developing countries, more than half of all jobs do not officially exist. people are working in a shadow economy. many of them didn't finish school, have no contracts, or are poorly paid and have no job security. they often work as garbage collectors, street vendors, or as construction workers in the cities and slums. international work organizations can't even say how many are affected. the numbers could be much higher and vary according to region. in sub-saharan africa, up to 80% of all workers have jobs that aren't recognized by the government. women with small children find it especially hard to land a job. we look at south africa where women are becoming business owners. ♪ >> the women at the clothing bank in durban like to start the

day with a round of gospel. the business was co-founded by tracey gilmore. the stock has been donated by major retail chains. tracey: this is all the stock that has already been de-branded. so it's been collected from the retail outlets, all of our donors and sponsors. and it's been de-branded and hung in the warehouse, ready for the women to come and shop. so they choose their own product. >> these women are waiting for the warehouse to open. they buy the merchandise here at discounted prices and sell it. the project has allowed them to earn a living. >> i didn't have money. i couldn't find a job anywhere. i couldn't buy, like, food, couldn't pay education for my kids, because i'm a single mother, yes. >> my life wasn't where i wanted it to be. i was suffering, i was working as a maid before.

and when i heard about tcb, that they teach people, they give us training skills and business. and i always wanted to start a business but i never knew how, and how i can get funds. >> as soon as the doors open, the women rush in to snag the best possible bargains, as well as items they know are popular with their customers. they're all mothers who used to be unemployed. in south africa, 68% of mothers of children under 2 are single parents. the women have to apply to join the clothing bank scheme. and not everyone gets a place. tracey: we actually focus on mothers, so we have a double impact. so if you work with a mother, you empower a mother, you empower a child. and you know the first thing that mothers do is spend money on their children's education. and then they improve their home and their living conditions. >> once a week, all of the women involved in the project help sort out the clothes. they remove labels and fix anything that needs mending. the scheme also gives the women

two years of training, which they partly finance themselves with the money they earn with their small businesses. tracey gilmore is a strong believer in creating a nurturing environment for the women who work here. almost all come from disadvantaged backgrounds. gilmore herself grew up in a very different world. tracey: we lived in a bubble, i have to admit. you know, we went to a white school, we lived in a white community, we really lived a very protected life. so only when we got into high school did we start to realize that something was wrong. my parents weren't activists, but they did teach us the right way. >> tracey gilmore and tracey chambers wanted to do something to bridge south africa's glaring social divide by helping women. 50% of all fathers in the country have abandoned their children. the scheme covers money management, business acumen, computer training, and even life skills.

>> so this is tracey. this is the clothing bank. tracey: no, it's really a collective effort. yes. >> the women start running their own business within two weeks of joining the program. milicent ceke has almost finished the course. she has an informal small business on the outskirts of durban, where she sells discounted merchandise from the clothing bank. she now earns enough to send her three children to school. getting started was tough, but milicent ceke has big plans. milicent: now i'm dreaming to have a shop, where i can just put my things in a shop, not like this. put it in a shop, a big shop, where i just can sell nice in a shop. >> the unemployment rate in south africa is well over 20%. milicent: poor means you've got nothing, you've got no hope. you got no hope. you are just living for now.

you don't think for tomorrow. that's poor for, in us. so if they get in this program, there will be no poor anymore, because we get money every day. so we work hard. and we get money every day. ♪ >> the clothing bank has enough capacity to support 800 mothers trading from its five branches. milicent ceke says the project has turned her into a different person. she's keen to keep improving her business skills. she now not only has a job. she has ambition. ♪

>> i am -- >>a a global teen. >> in our series "global teens," we meet teenagers from all over the world and ask what inspires them. today, we're in northern ireland with a 13-year-old who wants to make it big. >> my name is james mcdonnell. i'm 13 years old, and i live in belfast, northern ireland. >> hey, guys. if you did the recognize my face, it's probably because

you're not subscribed to my youtube channel. please subscribe down below because i make videos every week. in my free time, i would usually do my youtube channel, or sometimes on the occasional hangabout, i would usually go out with my friends or sometimes with my family out places. but most of the time, i'm working on my youtube channel. ♪ i really like to listen to k-pop music because it really just fascinates me and they sing in different languages. so i do understand a bit of it after listening to it because i've been listening to it since i was younger. but i really like listening to k-pop music because i think it's different from other music, to be honest. and i like the little change in genre, i guess. ♪ i hope that one day i'm able to go travelling around the world, because i'd love to see all the different cultures.

and this is a little map of places i would like to go. i would love to go somewhere in america. and i would love to go to australia to see my uncle, and i would also love to come to germany because apparently there's really good food, and i don't think there's anywhere better. this is my granny, and this is my grandad, and this is a photo of their wedding. and i think our generation has a better advantage because we have phones and we have ipads and we have all of the new technology and stuff that happens today. so they didn't really have much, so i think we are at more of an advantage because we have better stuff to use in our everyday lives. ♪

>> now we turn to some people who are taking action on climate change. costa rica is an example to the world when it comes to protecting the environment. in just a few years, the central american country wants to stop using fossil fuels. climate protection even extends to coffee production. our reporter katja dohne took a taste test. katja: costa rica wants to be carbon neutral by 2021. it's already well on the way when it comes to protecting the rain forest. now it's focused on lowering the greenhouse gas emissions generated by coffee production. climate-friendly coffee is also good for business. the german giz development agency is helping the country with the conversion. >> the project is quite innovative. no one else is doing it yet. we hope that the production

methods will allow coffee farmers to market their product as something unique, unlike any other coffee in the world. katja: coffee is relatively expensive in costa rica because of high wages and the fact that the country promotes quality instead of quantity. the coffee may be more expensive, but its quality is ensured by the national coffee institute, icafe, which has been working to improve it further and make it more climate friendly. it's a highly scientific process. for example, farmers send samples of ailing plants to the institute, where scientists look for efficient treatments, such as more ecologically sound fertilizers. and the coffee that is produced is subjected to extensive quality control.

new types of plants are grown on the test fields nearby. this new plant from brazil is showing promise. it bears an unusually large number of beans. >> these are the 3-year-old plants. this is the entire harvest. this isn't normal for one of our traditional plants. usually they need longer to produce so many coffee beans. and the leaves are bigger, nearly double the size of traditional leaves. and they are very tough. that helps deter fungus infections from developing quickly. katja: emilia acosta's job is to convince the farmers to adopt the improved ecological practices. emilia: besides using these plants, they also need to change how they cultivate them. they have to increase the distance between the plants, change the fertilizer, and provide more shade. those are big changes.

most start with small steps. katja: farmers receive regular visits, this time in orosi, one of the smaller plantations. acosta meets cecilia genis at the finca zalmari. the world of coffee farmers is a small one here in costa rica. cecilia genis explains that the harvest is well underway even though it's the middle of the rainy season. cecilia: we're noticing climate change. we didn't use to start harvesting until september. now it's only june. that's incredible. katja: many local coffee farmers are here today to attend a workshop that will teach them production methods that are more climate friendly.

most emissions come from fertilizer, especially nitrogen fertilizer. if the farmers can spray more efficiently, they will produce less damaging greenhouse gases. today they're learning proper dosages and how to cover a hectare of coffee plants most efficiently. >> kaffee, kaffee. katja: they're practicing with water. at the finca, they are also learning how to keep co2 emissions low by planting large shade trees. >> this trunk contains about 50% carbon. and the tree is constantly going through the process of photosynthesis. that means it absorbs carbon from the atmosphere through its leaves in the form of co2. as it grows, year after year, it absorbs more and more carbon. some trees absorb more than others. the ones with dense wood are best.

emilia: the coffee farmers are always curious and want to know more and more. sometimes they're skeptical of new methods, but they're willing to try. they'll say, maybe in that small corner over there, i'll try it and see if it works. and so, step by step, they're learning by doing. and then they go to a neighbor and say, look what i've done. i didn't think it would work, but it's super. katja: one farmer who can show his neighbors what he's already done is oscar chacon. his finca, las lajas, is in the center of the country. he's been an organic coffee farmer for years. oscar: you feel proud when your plants look like this. when a coffee producer sees such plants, he is happy.

katja: he's even happier with the ground. because of the many shade trees and weeds, the ground's become more fertile. oscar: these are fungi and microorganisms, organic materials that break down and decay. it comes from leaves that fall from the trees. they contain calcium, magnesium, and other materials. that means the finca nourishes itself with the organic material. katja: the plantation owner has been practicing environmentally friendly practices for some time now. it's hoped that within two years an additional 6,000 coffee farmers will join him. that would bring costa rica one step closer to being carbon neutral. ♪ >>

this time our global snack comes from denmark. >> the danish city of copenhagen is probably known best for its picturesque canals and bicycles. but it is also the home of the country's most popular street food, the polser, or danish hot dog. since 1921, the snack has remained a firm favorite among locals and tourists alike. they are available all over the city in polsevogns, or sausage wagons, and come in many different variations. >> this is my hot dog stand. we have six or seven different kinds of hot dogs, then we have hot dog of the week, a special hot dog with only homemade toppings and everything. this costs about 40 kroner. that's 6 euro. so that's not bad. >> former pastry chef john jensen has owned this cart outside of the city's central station for the last 11 years.

john: the most popular hot dog is definitely the danish hot dog, is like open face with sauces in it, ketchup, mustard, crispy onion, raw onion, and pickled cucumber. >> the special danish hot dog sauce is made up of cauliflower, sweet mustard, pickles, and cumin. for many customers, a classic danish hot dog is a highlight of their trip to copenhagen. >> i'm so hungry that i could eat anything, but i was dreaming about this on the train ride. this is the first thing i do when i come to copenhagen. ♪ >> you can find more about us on our facebook page, dw global society, where we share stories about people from all over the world. get to know our berlin globals.

they come from israel, yemen, france, and jamaica. what are they doing in berlin? >> they make berlin what it is. >> they'll tell you that and more every wednesday on our page dw global society. follow us on facebook. that's all for today. we're glad you could join us. we love hearing from you. so write to us at global 3000 at dw.com, or visit us on facebook, dw global society. see you next time. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

- [female voice over]: this program is made possible in part by the town of marion, home of the wayne henderson school of appalachian arts, celebrating 21 years as a certified virginia main street community. the historic general francis marion hotel and the speak easy restaurant and lounge, providing accommodations and casual fine dining. in downtown marion, virginia. the bank of marion. technology powered, service driven. wbrf 98.1 fm. bryant label, a proud supporter of our region's musical heritage. ("cherokee shuffle" by gerald anderson) ♪