By Dylan Baddour
As if the dangers of covering crime in one of the riskiest regions of the world for journalists weren’t enough, reporters in Northern Mexico now face new obstacles allegedly created by the authorities who were supposed to protect them.
The state government of Sinaloa passed legislation widely condemned as a “gag law” on crime reporting, and in Tamaulipas, government officials are believed to be behind a campaign to discredit media coverage of organized crime.
The law in Sinaloa, which bars journalists’ access to crime scenes and confines reporting to official statements by the state’s attorney general, “may be part of a trend fostered by the national government of President Enrique Peña Nieto to downplay news about drug wars and other violence as a way to attract outside investors,” according to the Los Angeles Times .
A Tamaulipas blogger and Twitter user told Reporters Without Borders that he believes threats against him are the result of his criticism of police operations in the ongoing battle against drug-trafficking in the region.
A network of citizen reporting on organized crime had developed in Tamaulipas through Twitter and blogs, after the news media was forced to limit their coverage due to threats and attacks from the drug cartels. With hashtags like #VigilantesM and #Reynosafollow, citizens started to post information on crime and police.
Rafael Cano, president of Mexico’s National Forum of Journalists and Communicators, said that the alleged “gag law” of Sinaloa “simply serves to hide inefficiency” of government police in fighting organized crime, according to Mexico’s El Debate.
Sinaloa has been a significant epicenter of the drug trafficking industry that has financed organized crime in Mexico for years. Sinaloa Cartel headman Joaquín “el Chapo” Guzmán was captured earlier this year, but an upsurge in regional violence followed as criminal groups readjusted to his absence.
Battles between organized gangs and police have also raged in Tamaulipas, which borders the United States, with frequent criticism over the state and federal governments’ inability to solve the problem that has killed tens of thousands across the country in the last decade.
In the Mexican state of Guerrero, journalists gathered silently in a public demonstration of solidarity with the media of Sinaloa and to protest the new law that limits reporters to official government statements about crime and prohibits photo, video or audio recording of suspects involved in crime.
The protesters in Guerrero wore black bandanas around their eyes and mouths and carried signs that said, “in Mexico, the freedom to bring true information to the citizens is at risk,” according to El Debate.
The Sinaloa governor, who proposed the new legislation to the provincial assembly, said that he did not intend to “commit excesses, much less to restrict the free exercise of journalism in Sinaloa,” according to Venezuela’s El Universal. Rather he argues that the new law would strengthen the regional press.
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.
