Juarez newspaper denies surrendering to organized crime

Sep 20, 2010, 19:37 GMT

Mexico City - The daily newspaper El Diario in the troubled northern Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez denied Monday having given up independent reporting in the face of violence against its staff.

On Sunday, El Diario had published a front-page editorial headlined with the question: 'What do you want from us?' In it, the paper described organized crime syndicates as the city's 'de facto authorities' and asked the gangs to openly declare what they want from the local media.

'As information workers, we want you to explain to us what it is you want from us, what you want us to publish or not publish, so we know what to expect,' the text said.

Late Thursday, one photographer was killed and another seriously injured at a shopping centre in Ciudad Juarez. Both worked for El Diario.

On Monday, the newspaper's deputy chief editor, Pedro Torres, denied that El Diario had 'totally given up' its stand against organized crime.

He told W Radio that the editorial sought to 'appeal to those who are allegedly carrying out' the attacks and to address the authorities. He complained that the slaying of one of the newspaper's reporters remains unsolved after nearly two years.

Torres said that the paper will keep reporting on organized crime but will be more cautious.

'We are going to ask our people to be more careful, to be more cautious, to maybe not go so far with information,' he said. 'We also need to make sure that this will not happen to us again. I think two deaths is paying a high enough price already.'

Mexico is regarded as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, particularly when reporting on organized crime or political corruption. For that same reason press organizations note that many of the country's media outlets are increasingly engaging in self-censorship on such stories.

Eleven journalists have been killed this year in Mexico, according to the non-governmental organization Reporters Without Borders.

Ciudad Juarez, just across the US border from El Paso, Texas, is regarded as the most violent city in Mexico. Last year, more than 2,600 people were murdered in Juarez, mostly in fighting between rival drug-trafficking gangs, according to authorities.

More than 28,000 people have died since December 2006 in Mexico in violence linked to organized crime.