Thread: Mexico: Reporters discuss risks of covering drug war

http://www.eluniversal.com.mx/miami/16766.html

Reporters discuss risks of covering drug war
BY OLGA R. RODRIGUEZ
El Universal
Sábado 28 de enero de 2006
Miami Herald, página 1

Journalists admitted to self-censorship out of fear of being attacked or killed.

NUEVO LAREDO, Tamaulipas - Border journalists, whose colleagues have turned up missing or dead after covering drug violence, say they are censoring themselves out of fear of being killed.

Reporters made the admission during a two-day meeting hosted by the Inter-American Press Association (SIP) that ended Friday.

More than 100 reporters from Mexico, the United States and other parts of Latin America attended the meeting to discuss ways to report the news in spite of the danger posed by Mexico´s spiraling drug war.

The meeting came only days after two reporters with Nuevo Laredo´s El Mañana were caught in the crossfire between rival gangs, heightening the fear of an already terrorized press.

Last year, seven Mexican reporters were killed and one disappeared.

Nuevo Laredo newspaper editors say they have been omitting the names of some victims of violence after drug traffickers have called and threatened reporters if the names are published.

Or sometimes, they add, they simply don´t run the story.

Nuevo Laredo has been in the front lines of a bloody battle between Mexico´s top drug cartels fighting for control of its billion-dollar smuggling routes into the United States.

So far this year, 21 people - nearly one every day - have been murdered in the city of 300,000 across from Laredo, Texas. All but four of the killings have been related to drug violence, police say.

"The goal is not to ask reporters to be martyrs, but what we want is to share experiences and give reporters the tools to cover subjects like drug trafficking in a responsible and objective way," said Ricardo Trotti, press freedom director for the Miami-based Inter-American Press Association.

After its crime reporter, Alfredo Jiménez, disappeared in April, El Imparcial dropped bylines on drug trafficking stories and required reporters to keep editors informed of their whereabouts, said Fernando Healy, the general director of the daily newspaper, based in Hermosillo, Sonora, which borders Arizona.

"Alfredo´s disappearance hit us all very hard and we had to come up with a strategy that would allow us to keep writing about organized crime, while also protecting our reporters," Healy said.

The association wants the killing of journalists to be considered a federal crime so federal investigators can handle the cases.

Now state officials handle the homicide cases in their area unless they are clearly linked to drug trafficking.

Reporters said the lack of protection by Mexican officials is the leading reason why reporters along the border are censoring themselves.

"There isn´t much (reporters) can do when there is a lack of rule of law and individual guarantees are practically suspended," said Roberto Rock, vice president and editorial director of EL UNIVERSAL newspaper.

In August, members of the press association agreed to form investigative teams to look into the stalled cases of slain and missing journalists.

The teams plan to conduct their own investigation into Jiménez´s disappearance and publish their findings in several newspapers in February.

the scenario is very simple. You report drug war information, we burn you alive. That is what the mexican government is doing to its citizens. The Mexican government has made it very clear, they will kill you if you open your mouth to international exposure. I know. I live here where all these crap happens. I am not a fan of fear thats why they can kiss my ass.