By Ingrid Bachmann
Mexico's interior minister, Fernando Gómez Mont, demanded the press act responsibly, insisting that the violence prevailing in the country is caused by information spread by the media, El Universal and El Economista report.
“If you keep fomenting this division between the citizens and government, then you're causing the violence," Gómez Mont told journalists, as quoted by La Jornada.
In response, the president of the Journalists Association of Ciudad Juárez (APCJ), Jesús Meza, criticized the minister's lack of sensitivity. "The federal government has not only disregarded people from Juárez, [but it also has] a lack of knowledge of the true function of journalism," Meza says, quoted by El Mexicano. In a column in El Diario, Avelino Soto says an attempt to blame media is an attempt "to evade one's own responsibility," and that the media are obliged to tell citizens that "those responsible for security are failing."
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.
