Mexico’s growing drug violence is a leading topic of news around the world, making headlines this week, for example, not only in English and Spanish, but in Arabic, Japanese, Russian and Urdu.
The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has written to President Felipe Calderón to express concern over several attacks and cases of harassment by federal forces against journalists who cover law enforcement.
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.
Something is wrong with access to information if the body responsible for overseeing the law that protects information access in a country asks the government to clearly state that it doesn't intend to impede transparency. This is what has happened in Mexico, where the Federal Institute of Information Access (IFAI) called on the Secretary of Government to ratify that lack of transparency and accountability will not be reinstated, reported El Universal and La Jornada.
The country's biggest media outlet announced that it would not report on the disappearance of former presidential candidate Diego Fernández de Cevallos until the investigation has concluded, drawing criticism from media and security experts, CNN México reports. (See articles in English by The Christian Science Monitor and the Associated Press.)
President Barack Obama is hosting his Mexican counterpart Felipe Calderón this week on an official state visit to Washington that includes talks on bilateral issues such as immigration and drug violence on the U.S.–Mexico border. The Committee to Protect Journalists urges the leaders to put Mexico’s press freedom crisis on their agenda.
The offices of Televisa’s Canal 2 in Tepic, Nayarit (on Mexico’s central Pacific coast) were attacked with AK-47s and grenades, La Jornada reports. The facilities suffered damage, but neither of the two people in the offices were wounded, Europa Press adds. (See this Associated Press article in English.)
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.
Violence has made the border city of Ciudad Juárez one of the world's most dangerous cities and one of the riskiest places to practice journalism. The situation is such that several insurance companies will not sell life insurance to media workers, while others have added new surcharges to policies issued in the city, El Diario reports.
Journalist Érika Ramírez and photographer David Cilia, both of Contralínea magazine, were rescued late Thursday, the Committee to Protect Journalists reports. Cilia suffered two gunshot wounds to the leg.
The International Press Institute (IPI) named Lydia Cacho as an IPI “World Press Freedom Hero," to recognize her contributions to press freedom and investigative journalism in the defense of human rights.
Relatives of Evaristo Ortega Zárate found the van he was driving a week ago when he is believed to have been kidnapped in Xalapa, Veracruz, the Veracruzanos.info site reports, with information from news agencies.