The War in México: The Journalists

Part 1 of 5: The Journalists

Why aren't more journalists reporting on México's violent drug war? Perhaps, it's because they're being murdered.

In the last eight years, more than 45 journalists have been killed in México, making it the second most dangerous country to be a journalist. Number one? Iraq.

Newspapers, radio and television reporters have been covering the drug trade in México for decades. But coverage that was once about a few drug traffickers now includes stories about businessmen, politicians, government officials, judges, police and members of the military. "In México, organized crime can mean the traffickers, the police, the government or the people in the office buildings," warns Pedro Torres, an editor at El Diario newspaper in the border city of Ciudad Juarez just across from El Paso, Texas.

The press has been making enemies and those enemies have taken aim at the press. Alfredo Quijano, of the El Norte newspaper in Monterrey, believes the murders and kidnappings of so many journalists is censoring the news: "We are not publishing everything we know – which is not good – but we are trying to survive."

Even what gets published can benefit the drug trade. Traffickers have begun to hijack the headlines by committing spectacular acts of terrorism, such as mass be-headings, in order to use the media to broadcast their agenda. Author Luis Astorga: "The gangsters use these bloody tactics to try and win a psychological war against their enemy and sow terror in the population."

Next: The Good Guys