Mexican reporters fear they'll be killed
Published: Aug. 16, 2010 at 11:32 AM

REYNOSA, Mexico, Aug. 16 (UPI) -- Reporters, fearing they will be killed, often fail to report Mexico's drug cartel violence, or report only what they are forced to write, some journalists said.

As the drug war in Mexico grows, one byproduct is the traffickers' ability to turn underpaid and under-protected journalists against their mission of informing the public, the Los Angeles Times reported.

"You love journalism, you love the pursuit of truth, you love to perform a civic service and inform your community. But you love your life more," said an editor in Reynosa, in Tamaulipas state, who spoke to the Times anonymously. "We don't like the silence. But it's survival."

So-called narco-censorship means reporters and editors, because of fear or caution, are forced to write what the traffickers want them to write, or to simply not publish the whole story.

An estimated 30 reporters have been killed or disappeared since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a military-led offensive against the drug cartels in December 2006.

The United Nations sent a mission to Mexico last week to examine dangers to freedom of expression.

On Aug. 7, hundreds of Mexican reporters conducted demonstrations throughout the country, demanding an end to the killings and more secure working conditions.

A report from the Committee to Protect Journalists said few killings are ever investigated and a climate in which the cartels operate with seeming impunity results in more bloodshed, the Times said.

"It is not a lack of valor on the part of the journalists. It is a lack of backing," Mexican broadcaster Jaime Aguirre said. "If they kill me, nothing happens."

Social media networks, such as Twitter, fill some of the void, with residents frantically sending danger alerts, the Times said. And a "narco blog" began posting videos of cartel members and their victims, no matter how gruesome the footage.



http://www.upi.com/Top_News/Internation ... 281972770/