Even as violence and kidnappings are pressuring mainstream Mexican media into silence, an anonymous blog that is less than six-months-old has become one of the main sources for news about the country's out-of-control drug war, according to the Associated Press (AP).
The college-age blogger from northern Mexico majoring in computer security said his blog now sees 100s of posts each day and 3 million hits a week.
Called Blog del Narco, or Drug Trafficking Blog, the site serves as an "uncensored platform," as the blogger told the AP he publishes anything sent to him, "regardless of content or cartel affiliation."
As the site is often gory -- there's a video of a decapitation -- the article points out that critics contend the blog gives the drug traffickers free P.R.
According to the "About us" section of the site, the blog started as a result of the media and government pretending that nothing was happening. "Because the media is threatened and the government apparently bought, we decided to create a means of communication with which to let people know what is happening, to write the events exactly as they were, without alterations or modifications for our convenience."
Besides videos of executions and stories about violence, the site also provides chat-rooms, forums, and information about how to report drug-related crimes anonymously, explained Univision.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
