Mexico shuts down last newspaper

[taco]

Jimmahs peeples are innocent bean pickers

Quote: In Mexico, where journalism is one of the last trusted institutions, drug traffickers silence media Chris Hawley and Sean Holstege The Arizona Republic Jun. 8, 2007 12:00 AM MEXICO CITY When hand grenades began exploding outside its subsidiary in Sonora state, the largest newspaper chain in Mexico decided to throw in the towel. "For the good of all, I recognize the imperative need to make this painful and difficult decision and announce the temporary closure of the Cambio Sonora newspaper," Mario Vázquez Raña, president of Organización Editorial Mexicana, told readers in a letter. That was two weeks ago. The newspaper has not published since. Across Mexico, a tide of drug-related violence is silencing journalists, one of the few institutions that people still trust in this country racked by police and judicial corruption. Mexico was the deadliest country for journalists after Iraq in 2006, with nine dead and three missing, according to the Reporters Without Borders watchdog group. The numbers of attacks have been rising since 2003, as reporters are snatched from the street by armed men in SUVs or gunned down as they leave their offices. Just in the past month, a reporter and cameraman disappeared, another reporter received death threats and a newspaper office was attacked. The repression is hampering anti-crime efforts and threatening to destroy Mexico's free press, which had just begun to flourish after decades of control by the Mexican government, some journalists say. "Before, the repression was political. Now, it's coming from organized crime, and it's targeting the very lives of journalists," said Adela Navarro Bello, publisher of the Zeta newsmagazine in Tijuana. In some cases, attackers seem to be punishing reporters for specific articles identifying drug-smuggling and other suspects. But other attacks, like the Cambio Sonora grenades, seem to be aimed simply at sowing fear among the news media, said Reporters Without Borders, which interviewed reporters for its annual report. "Journalists on the border were telling us they were afraid to write about local crimes," said Lucie Morillon, Washington director for the group. "If you know the mayor or a powerful politician is linked to drug traffickers and you've just had a baby, you won't write that story."

[Stiffy]

They're only blowing up the newspapers that Americans are too lazy to blow up themselves.

[sandman]

they don't need a Mexican paper anymore because all the ones that could read are ILLEGALLY in the U.S.