(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release: Dread on the border A CPJ special report: Attacks spark fear, self-censorship in newsrooms of drug-plagued Mexican city New York, February 24, 2006 – After gunmen in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo stormed the offices of El Mañana newspaper this month – firing assault rifles, […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – The following is a CPJ press release:
Dread on the border
A CPJ special report: Attacks spark fear, self-censorship in newsrooms of drug-plagued Mexican city
New York, February 24, 2006 – After gunmen in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo stormed the offices of El Mañana newspaper this month – firing assault rifles, tossing a grenade, and seriously wounding one reporter – Editor Ramón Cantú said he would try to protect his staff by further curtailing coverage of drugs and crime. El Mañana had already begun censoring its pages two years ago, when editor Roberto Javier Mora García was stabbed to death.
Violence and fear have devastated the media in the crime-ridden border city of 300,000, just as they have throughout much of Mexico’s northern region, the Committee to Protect Journalists found in a special report issued today. In a series of interviews, journalists say they have stopped going out to cover stories after dark or in the early morning. Naming the drug traffickers who plague the city is off-limits, and editors scrutinize articles to ensure no name slips in. Reporters treat every gangland killing in isolation, rarely following up. Investigative journalism died a long time ago. And with corruption rampant, journalists say they are routinely offered bribes.
They also have lost faith in Mexico’s law enforcement agencies and judiciary. “Why should reporters risk their lives to investigate a story if the authorities themselves won’t do it?” asked one.
The federal government has reacted to the violence by naming a special prosecutor to investigate crimes against the press. “Whoever attacks freedom of expression, attacks society,” President Vicente Fox said. But the new prosecutor faces an enormous challenge in a city like Nuevo Laredo, where 181 people were killed last year and where drug cartels are battling for control.
To read the report click here:
http://www.cpj.org/Briefings/2006/nuevo_laredo/nuevo_laredo.html
CPJ is a New York-based, independent, nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom around the world.
**For further information on the recent attack on “El Mañana” newspaper, see IFEX alert of 7 February 2005; for an overview of other attacks in the northern border area, see alert of 24 June 2005**
