http://www.kltv.com/Global/story.asp?S=3501952

Press rights group decries attacks on Mexico border reporters


MEXICO CITY Slayings of investigative journalists along Mexico's northern border are drawing criticism from an international press freedom group.
The Paris-based Reporters Without Borders says the slayings have stifled reporting and show the failures of government at all levels.

By the group's count, at least 16 Mexican journalists have been killed or have vanished since 2000. Twelve of those 16 deaths and disappearances came in northern states plagued by drug trafficking.

It said that because of such attacks, the hope for freer expression that accompanied Mexico's democratic opening in recent years "was quickly snuffed out."

The report quotes Ramon Dario Cantu, editor of the Nuevo Laredo newspaper El Manana (mahn-YAH'-nah), as saying: "We are hostages to self-censorship and it's worse than censorship."

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