By Maira Magro
In the first episode of a special series about violence against Mexican journalists in regions dominated by drug trafficking, CNN Mexico reports that 27 reporters have been threatened in Morelos state alone in central Mexico.
They received an anonymous email April 19 with death threats that included personal information about their families, this letter from the Independent Commission for Human Rights of Morelos explains.
Seven of the threatened journalists work for a local newspaper and they reported their threats to the state Attorney General's office, but not all are working now. Journalist Angelina Albarran told CNN that she has been assigned two bodyguards, and she was advised to leave the state for some time, but she decided to wait before making a decision. A few days later, she was threatened again said she did not know the reason for the threats.
The threats may have resulted from a drug cartel and have been creating a climate of "widespread fear." Some media in Morelos have felt obliged to "take a step backwards" in their reporting, CNN says. Read other posts about violence against journalists in Mexico.
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.
