Mexican reporters risk their lives covering the news
"In many ways, Mexico's democratic evolution has afforded the news media greater freedom than at any time in modern history. But at the same time, reporters are working on a battlefield: Mexico is considered the most dangerous Latin American nation in which to be a journalist, and one of the riskiest in the world," writes the L.A. Times' Ken Ellingwood in this report.
" 'Every day it's more difficult to practice journalism in Mexico, especially from the middle of a war between the government and narcos,' said Ricardo Ravelo, a reporter at the national weekly magazine Proceso who covers drug trafficking. 'We are in a no-man's land.' "
"Besides the killings and disappearances of reporters, criminal gangs have attacked newspaper offices with high-powered rifles and grenades. Anonymous threats are commonplace. Reporters have been seized, held for hours and beaten."
Read on....
-- Reed Johnson in Los Angeles
Photo: On Alert: A federal agent guards the office of the newspaper El Mañana in Nuevo Laredo in 2006 after an attack by men wielding assault rifles and grenades. Ricardo Segovia / Associated Press
