• Colombia: Hit man in Bogota targeting high-profile journalists

    Fernando Vergara / AP file

    Colombia's President Juan Manuel Santos is shown in a file photo from 2013. On Tuesday, Santos said a criminal group was plotting to kill journalists.

    By Helen Murphy, Reuters

    BOGOTA - Colombia's government warned on Tuesday of a plot by a criminal group to kill several high-profile journalists just weeks after the attempted assassination of an investigative reporter boosted concerns over threats to a free press in the violence-plagued Andean nation.

    President Juan Manuel Santos also announced that 90 journalists are being given protection by the government. He urged Attorney General Eduardo Montealegre to investigate attacks against journalists.


    "In this government, we're totally committed to get to the very bottom of the problems that undermine this fundamental right to be well-informed that all Colombians have," Santos said at an event to promote media rights.

    Journalists and investigators have long been the target of attacks and threats in Colombia, allegedly carried out by corrupt politicians, drug lords, Marxist rebels and right-wing paramilitary leaders to silence coverage that may damage their interests.

    A hit man has entered the Colombian capital to kill columnist Leon Valencia, analyst Ariel Avila and reporter Gonzalo Guillen, according to Andres Villamizar, head of a government-run agency to protect high-profile targets.

    "We won't allow these plans to be carried out," Villamizar said early on Tuesday on his Twitter account, pledging to step up security.

    Before entering politics, Santos served as an editor at the country's top newspaper, El Tiempo, once owned by his family. He said he will strive to protect freedom of expression "because that's where I was born, it's at the heart of who I am."

    Spotlight on dangers
    Even though a U.S.-backed military offensive has improved security in Colombia over the last decade, the new threats throw a spotlight once again on the dangers for reporters covering corruption and criminal gangs in Colombia. This comes as the government seeks a peace accord with the biggest rebel group, the FARC.

    The threat likely stems from an investigation into links between paramilitary groups and politicians during last year's municipal elections, Valencia, a former Marxist rebel and columnist for the respected Semana magazine, told Reuters.

    The hit man was probably hired by a criminal group with links to politicians, Valencia said.

    "No doubt we're afraid because the people involved are very powerful and have no limits," Valencia said. "We will continue investigating, nothing will stop us."

    Paramilitary groups continue to operate across Colombia even after former President Alvaro Uribe negotiated their demobilization in 2008 and many handed in their weapons in exchange for light jail sentences. Thousands have morphed into new drug-funded crime gangs and continue to kill and make threats if their operations are at risk.

    It was not immediately clear why Guillen would be targeted alongside Valencia and Avila.

    Criminal groups
    Colombia has been rattled by a five-decade war involving various insurgent groups - including the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, and paramilitary forces - that has killed more than 100,000 people and forced millions to flee their homes.

    The new generation of criminal gangs is now fighting with the FARC and paramilitary groups for control of drug-smuggling routes and illegal activities, while journalists, union workers and residents are often caught in the middle.

    The latest threat comes on the heels of an assassination attempt two weeks ago on Ricardo Calderon, an investigative journalist who narrowly survived an ambush that riddled his car with bullets as he returned to Bogota after reporting on irregularities in a military prison for Semana magazine.

    Last week, eight journalists were given 24 hours to leave the city of Valledupar, in Cesar province, as they reported on government attempts to return stolen land to war victims. Leaflets from a little-known group, the Anti-land Restitution Army, declared the reporters collaborators and hence targets for death.

    All the reporters and analysts threatened have worked on some of the most damning stories, including corruption in northern La Guajira province, the government's intelligence agency wire tapping opponents, and right-wing paramilitary involvement in the nation's Congress.

    (Additional reporting by Luis Jaime Acosta and Eduardo Garcia in Bogota; Editing by Vicki Allen and Will Dunham) 

    Copyright 2013 Thomson Reuters. Click for restrictions.

  • 2012: A year of living dangerously for journalists across the world

    Zohra Bensemra / Reuters file

    Journalist Marie Colvin, second left, poses for a photograph with Libyan rebels in Misrata, June 4, 2011. She was among 67 journalists killed worldwide in 2012, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    By James Eng, NBC News

    The civil war in Syria, targeted shootings in Somalia and continued violence in Pakistan made 2012 a particularly dangerous year for journalists, with at least 67 killed worldwide in direct relation to their work, according to an organization that defends press freedom.

    The fatality numbers compiled through mid-December by the Committee to Protect Journalists represent a 42 percent increase over 2011. The committee says 2012 is on track to becoming one of the deadliest years for journalists since it began compiling records in 1992.


    Coupled with snapshot figures showing a record-high number of journalists imprisoned worldwide – 232 on Dec. 1 – this year has been a year of living dangerously for those who work to gather and disseminate news, said Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

    “You put all that together and it’s a very bleak picture,” Simon told NBC News on Thursday.

    “I would say this has been one of the worst years. There’ve been years when we’ve had higher numbers of journalists killed, but the combination of near-record fatalities and record journalists imprisoned --  put those together and you have to acknowledge that this is one of the worst years on record."

    Syria was by far the deadliest country for journalists in 2012. According to committee statistics, 28 journalists were killed in the fighting or targeted for murder by government or opposition forces. Among them were Marie Colvin, an award-winning American correspondent who worked for The Sunday Times of London, and French freelance photographer Remi Ochlik, both of whom were killed in a rocket attack in the Baba Amr neighborhood of the besieged city of Homs on Feb. 22.

    Julien De Rosa/ho / EPA file

    French photojournalist Remi Ochlik works in Homs, Syria, in 2012.

    Twelve journalists died this year in Somalia, where the militant Islamist group al-Shabaab has been waging a violent insurgency against the Mogadishu-based federal government. All were murdered, according to CPJ, which says not a single killer of a journalist has been prosecuted in Somalia over the past decade.

    Pakistan, the deadliest country for journalists in 2010 and 2011, dropped to third this year, but the number of fatalities held steady at seven, the committee reported.

    In Brazil, four journalists were killed -- the country’s highest annual toll in more than a decade. “In small cities, bloggers and writers for small newspapers and Web portals who are calling out corruption are being targeted,” Gabriel Elizondo, a correspondent for al-Jazeera in São Paulo, was quoted as saying by CPJ. “The profile is usually the same: It’s a small-town journalist, working for a small outlet, who gets gunned down."

    Watch World News videos on NBCNews.com

    The worst year on record for journalist killings was 2009, when 74 people died because of their work — nearly half of them slain in a massacre in Maguindanao province, Philippines, according to CPJ.

    Simon said the record-high number of imprisoned journalists as of Dec. 1 also was “extremely disturbing.”

    “One reason is what’s happening in Turkey. There’s a massive crackdown under way on political expression and political dissent largely focused on the Turkish minority.  Many of the journalists in jail are Kurdish,” he said.

    NBC's Richard Engel and his production team made their homecoming late Thursday night. In their first in-depth interview since being freed, Engel and his team, including cameraman John Kooistra, producer Ghazi Balkiz and two other crew members, tell their story about spending five days in captivity in Syria and the trauma they survived. NBC's Savannah Guthrie reports.

    “Other places we’ve seen an increase (in detentions) are places where there have been repressive policies (against the media) for some time, like China, Eritrea, Syria, Iran,” Simon said.

    The imprisonment numbers, because they were tallied on Dec. 1, don’t include NBC News’ Chef Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team. They were captured and held in Syria for five days before being freed after a firefight between the captors and a Syrian rebel group at a checkpoint on Monday, NBC News said.  In any case, CPJ's tally doesn't include journalists who are abducted by "non-state actors," Simon said.

    Journalists who worked online made up more than one-third of the death toll in 2012, compared with one-fifth in 2011, CPJ noted.

    “More independent journalists are working online closer to the action and getting killed as a result,” Simon said.

    “Think about how front-line news is being gathered today.  In a lot of countries around the world, dissent is limited and curtailed. There’s no opposition to express critical views in the media, so people for last decade or more have been expressing those critical ideas online.  Governments have been cracking down on this.”

    You can see CPJ’s database of journalists killed in 2012 for their work here and the breakdown of journalists jailed here.

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  • Final member of NBC News team working with Richard Engel crosses safely from Syria

    By NBC News staff

    The final member of the NBC News team working with Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel crossed safely from Syria into Turkey early Wednesday, NBC News said in a statement.

    Ian Rivers, who provides technical support for NBC News, got separated from the rest of Engel's production team in the midst of the firefight early Monday, which resulted in the team's escape from captivity. Until now, Rivers' whereabouts in Syria had been unknown. Rivers was said to be in good condition and will be evaluated in Turkey, according to the network.

    “Now that Ian Rivers has been reunited with Richard Engel’s entire production team, all of us at NBC News can breathe a huge sigh of relief and express our deep appreciation to all who helped secure their freedom. At the same time, our thoughts and concerns are with those who remain missing inside Syria and we hope for their swift and safe release,” said NBC News President Steve Capus.

    Engel, 39, and his team disappeared shortly after crossing into northwest Syria from Turkey last Thursday. The network had not been able to contact them until learning that they had been freed on Monday.

    The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing.

    After entering Syria, Engel and his team were abducted, tossed into the back of a truck before being transported to an unknown location believed to be near the small town of Ma'arrat Misrin. During their captivity, they were blindfolded and bound, but otherwise not physically harmed, the network said.

    Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued. Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said.

    Engel and his team were unharmed in the incident. Engel and several other members of the team remained in Syria until Tuesday morning when they made their way to the border and re-entered Turkey, the network said.

    After being held captive for five days in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel and his team recount being ambushed and blindfolded before being freed at a checkpoint. 

  • 'A lot of psychological torture': NBC News team tells of kidnapping ordeal in Syria

    After being held captive for five days in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel and his team recount being ambushed and blindfolded before being freed at a checkpoint. 

    By Rachel Elbaum, NBC News

    Hours after crossing the border into Turkey, NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his crew told the story of their harrowing five-day kidnapping ordeal inside war-torn Syria.

    “We were with some of the [anti-government] rebels and as we were moving down the road a group of gunmen literally jumped out of the trees and bushes on the side of the road,” Engel said Tuesday during a live interview with TODAY from Antakya, Turkey. “There were about 15 gunmen wearing ski masks, they were heavily armed. They had a container truck positioned, waiting by the side of the road. They put us into that container truck. We were with some gunmen - some rebels that were escorting us - they executed one of them on the spot.”

    Over the next several days, the men, who were kept blindfolded and bound, were interrogated and transferred to a series of safe houses.

    “We weren’t physically beaten or tortured,” Engel said, adding that there was “a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed. They made us choose which one of us would be shot first. When we refused, there were mock shootings. They pretended to shoot [NBC News producer] Ghazi several times, then they fired a gun up in the air.”

    To keep their spirits up, the journalists would peek through their blindfolds and take any opportunity when they were left alone by the guards to joke around with each other.

    Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria

    “When we first got captured it was a difficult moment of disbelief,” said producer Ghazi Balkiz, who has worked for many years with Engel and cameraman John Kooistra. “They were a long, five hard days and a few moments of despair. I thought about my family, my brother, my parents, my wife, and I have been feeling bad about what I have been putting them through. But it did help a lot that we were together.”

    After five days in captivity, opportunity struck. The kidnappers loaded the men into a minivan and were in the midst of transferring them to another location when they came upon a rebel checkpoint.

    'One of the happiest moments of my life'
    The captors started a firefight with the rebels and two of the kidnappers were killed. Engel, Balkiz and Kooistra quickly climbed out of the van, joined up with the rebels and spent a restless night with them.

    Early Tuesday morning, the group crossed the border – as free men - into Turkey, with the bandages used to bind them still in their pockets.

    Video: Street fighting, shelling in Syria capital

    “I must say that when we were freed yesterday, rescued by the rebels, it was one of the happiest moments of my life,” said Balkiz.

    “During the ordeal I made amends with my maker, made good with myself,” added Kooistra. “I was prepared to die many times. Moving was the hardest part. It was disconcerting to move blindfolded from house to house.”

    Engel said that he had a “very good idea” of who his captors were: members of the “shabiha” government militia, Shiites loyal to President Bashar Assad, trained by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

    “We were told they wanted to exchange us for four Iranian agents and two Lebanese people...,” said an unshaven Engel, still wearing the clothes from the day he was seized. “They captured us in order to carry out this exchange.”

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  • Richard Engel and NBC News team freed from captors in Syria

    After being held captive for five days in Syria, NBC's Richard Engel and his team recount being ambushed, blindfolded and traumatized before being freed at a checkpoint. 

    By Mike Brunker, NBC News

    Updated at 8:15 a.m. ET: NBC News’ Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and members of his network production team were freed from captors in Syria after a firefight at a checkpoint on Monday, five days after they were taken prisoner, NBC News said early Tuesday.

    “After being kidnapped and held for five days inside Syria by an unknown group, NBC News Chief Foreign Correspondent Richard Engel and his production crew members have been freed unharmed. We are pleased to report they are safely out of the country,” the network said in a statement.

    “It is good to be here,” Engel said during a live appearance on TODAY from Turkey. “I’m very happy that we’re able to do this live shot this morning.”

    Engel said that they were traveling with Syrian rebels when a group of about 15 gunmen “jumped out of the trees and bushes” and captured them.

    'Psychological torture'
    He said the gunmen executed one of the rebels “on the spot,” and later during their captivity they were subjected to mock executions while blindfolded and bound.

    "We weren't physically beaten or tortured. It was a lot of psychological torture, threats of being killed," Engel said.

    "They made us choose which one of us would be shot first and when we refused there were mock shootings. They pretended to shoot Ghazi [Balkiz, an NBC producer] several times,” Engel said.

    Balkiz said that they had “worked with each other very well… we kept each other’s spirits up” during their ordeal. Cameraman John Kooistra said he had “made good with my maker” and had been “prepared to die many times.”

    Engel said their captors “were talking openly about their loyalty to the government” of Syrian President Bashar Assad.

    He said he had a “very good idea” about who they were -- members of the “shabiha” militia, loyal to Assad, trained by the Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and allied with Lebanon-based group Hezbollah.

    Engel said their captors’ plan was to use them to win the freedom of people held by the rebels.

    “They captured us in order to carry out this exchange,” he said.

    NBC News file

    Richard Engel at the end of a reporting trip in Syria in July of this year.

    Engel, 39, and his team disappeared shortly after crossing into northwest Syria from Turkey on Thursday. The network had not been able to contact them until learning that they had been freed on Monday.

    The network said there was no claim of responsibility, no contact with the captors and no request for ransom during the time the crew was missing.

    After entering Syria, Engel and his team were abducted, tossed into the back of a truck before being transported to an unknown location believed to be near the small town of Ma’arrat Misrin. During their captivity, they were blindfolded and bound, but otherwise not physically harmed, the network said.

    Early Monday evening local time, the prisoners were being moved to a new location in a vehicle when their captors ran into a checkpoint manned by members of the Ahrar al-Sham brigade, a Syrian rebel group. There was a confrontation and a firefight ensued.  Two of the captors were killed, while an unknown number of others escaped, the network said.

    The NBC News crew was unharmed in the incident. They remained in Syria until Tuesday morning when they made their way to the border and re-entered Turkey, the network said. They were to be evaluated and debriefed, but had communicated that everyone was in good health.

    NBC News said it “expressed its gratitude to those who worked to gather information and secure the release of our colleagues.”

    Engel is widely regarded as one of America’s leading foreign correspondents for his coverage of wars, revolutions and political transitions around the world over the last 15 years. Most recently, he was recognized for his outstanding reporting on the 2011 revolution in Egypt, the conflict in Libya and unrest throughout the Arab world. 

    One of the only Western journalists to cover the entire war in Iraq , Engel was named chief foreign correspondent of NBC News in April 2008. He joined the network in May 2003.

    The Syrian civil war began in March 2011, when demonstrators took to the streets to show support for the so-called Arab Spring uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and north Africa and to demand the resignation of Assad of the ruling Ba’ath Party. The following month, Assad deployed the Syrian army to quell the uprising, ordering troops to open fire on demonstrators. But despite the harsh crackdown, Assad’s troops and militias loyal to the government were unable to quell what soon became an armed uprising.

    In the intervening months, the security situation in the country has continued to deteriorate amid increasingly fierce fighting between Syrian troops and a loose confederation of outgunned but increasingly emboldened rebel forces. The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights estimated in November that more than 40,000 people had died in the fighting.

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  • Reuters journalists: Israeli troops assaulted us, forced us to strip in street

    Dozens of Palestinians faced off with Israeli soldiers in the West Bank city of Hebron. The confrontation came after the shooting death of a 17-year-old by Israel's paramilitary border police force. NBCNews.com's Alex Witt reports.

    By NBC News staff and wire reports

    HEBRON, West Bank -- Israeli soldiers have been accused of punching two Reuters cameramen and forcing them to strip in the street, before letting off a tear gas canister in front of them, leaving one of them needing hospital treatment.

    Israel's military said Thursday it took the allegations seriously. 

    "The regional brigade commander was ordered to open an investigation," Israeli Defense Forces spokeswoman Avital Leibovich said in an email.

    Yousri Al Jamal and Ma'amoun Wazwaz said a foot patrol stopped them on Wednesday in the heart of Hebron as they were driving to a nearby checkpoint where a Palestinian teenager had just been shot dead by an Israeli border guard.

    Their car was clearly marked "TV" and they were both wearing blue flak jackets with "Press" emblazoned on the front.

    The soldiers forced them to leave the vehicle and punched them, striking them with the butts of their guns. They accused the journalists of working for an Israeli NGO, B'Tselem, which documents human rights violations in the occupied West Bank, the Reuters cameramen said.


    Locals say B'Tselem has given a number of Palestinians video cameras so they can film soldiers and settlers who live in this divided city. The NGO was not immediately available for comment.

    The soldiers did not let the men produce their official ID papers and forced them to strip down to their underwear, making them kneel on the road with their hands behind their heads, the cameramen said.

    Two other Palestinian journalists working for local news organizations, including a satellite television station affiliated to the Islamist group Hamas, were also stopped and forced to the ground.

    One of the soldiers then dropped a tear gas canister between the men and the IDF patrol ran away, according to the cameramen. The four journalists scrambled clear and Jamal and Wazwaz got to their car, which had rapidly filled up with tear gas, they said.

    More Israel coverage from NBC News

    They tried to drive away, but said they only got around 200 meters before they had to stop and exit the vehicle because of the gas. The soldiers then fired more tear gas in their direction, the cameramen said.

    Wazwaz was overcome by the fumes and was taken to hospital by ambulance. He was released later the same night.

    'Mistreatment'
    The Israeli soldiers allegedly took two gas masks and a video camera from their car. The undamaged camera was later found abandoned further up the road, according to the Reuters journalists.

    "We deplore the mistreatment of our journalists and have registered our extreme dismay with the Israeli military authorities," said Stephen J. Adler, editor-in-chief of Reuters News.

    Paul Danahar, the chairman of the Foreign Press Association in Israel, said on Twitter that the organization would soon issue a statement on the attack.

    There “must be a limit (on) how many times (the) IDF can say this stuff is usual behavior,” he wrote.

    Complete World coverage on NBCNews.com

    Tensions have been running particularly high in Hebron in the past week following repeated clashes between stone-throwing youths and soldiers.

    Muhammad al-Salameh, 17, was shot dead close to his house in the heart of Hebron on Wednesday evening after an altercation with border guards at a nearby checkpoint. Israeli police said he had brandished a gun, which later proved to be a toy gun.

    Some 800 Jewish settlers live among 30,000 Palestinians in the parts of the old city that are under Israeli control.

    Reuters contributed to this report.

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  • Sarkozy: French journalists escape from Syria to Lebanon

    Syrian troops are now in control of Baba Amr,  while rebel fighters have apparently fled. ITV's John Irvine reports.

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

     French President Nicolas Sarkozy said wounded French freelance journalist Edith Bouvier had arrived in Lebanon from Syria on Thursday, along with French photographer William Daniels.

    Sarkozy said he had spoken to Bouvier by telephone following her evacuation.

    Bouvier's family confirmed the news of her arrival in Lebanon to French TV channel France24.

    Sarkozy, in Brussels for a European summit, told reporters that Bouvier would be flown home to France in a government plane. The flight could happen as soon as Thursday evening if doctors agreed, he said.

    "Edith Bouvier and William Daniels are safely in Lebanon and will very shortly be under the protection of our embassy in Beirut," he said.

    Bouvier's femur was shattered during heavy shelling of Homs's rebel-held Baba Amr district, which killed veteran Sunday Times war correspondent Marie Colvin and French photographer Remi Ochlik last week.

    Meanwhile, Spanish reporter Javier Espinosa, one of several Western journalists trapped in Baba Amr for a week, crossed to Lebanon on Wednesday, an activist said, following the escape on Tuesday of wounded British photographer Paul Conroy.

    Thirteen Syrians were killed while aiding Conroy's escape, the activist group Avaaz said.

    Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Mexican journalist on drug lords: "If they're going to kill you, they're going to kill you'

    Thousands of guns lie on the ground before their destruction in Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua State, Mexico on February 16, 2012. At least 6000 rifles and pistols seized to drugs cartels were destroyed by members of the Mexican Army.

    By Erika Angulo and Wilma Hernandez, NBC News

    MIAMI – "If they're going to kill you, they're going to kill you," said Luz del Carmen Sosa, a reporter in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, and mother of two, who spends most of her day running from one murder scene to another. "Even if you arrive surrounded by police, security escorts, whoever wants to hurt you will hurt you."

    Just 20 miles from Ciudad Juarez, photojournalist Alejandro Hernández Pacheco did get hurt. On July 26, 2010, Hernandez was part of a TV news crew videotaping at a prison in the city of Gomez Palacio when he was kidnapped at gunpoint, along with two colleagues.

    "They took us to a place that was covered with dried blood, with teeth and hair stuck to the walls," said Hernandez. He stopped himself from describing the room any further, saying it brings back terrifying memories.

    "They hit us until they tired," he said, adding that the gunmen also threatened to burn him alive. "They hit me in the head with a piece of wood, on my back, my knees, my ankles."  The men were released five days later.  Authorities believe the kidnappers were members of the notorious Sinaloa cartel.

    Stringer/Mexico / Reuters

    Galia Rodriguez, 8, daughter of reporter Armando Rodriguez who was killed in Ciudad Juarez, takes part in an anniversary in the journalists's park in the border city of Ciudad Juarez on Nov. 13, 2010. Suspected drug gangs shot dead Rodriguez, a Mexican crime reporter who worked for El Diario de Ciudad Juarez on Nov. 13, 2008 in Ciudad Juarez.

    Mexico has become a killing field for reporters, according to a study released this week by the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists. The organization’s "Attacks on the Press in 2011" study shows 48 Mexican journalists have disappeared or have been killed in the last five years across the country.

    CPJ's survey found the increase in crimes against media workers began with the start of Mexican President Felipe Calderon's escalated war against narcotics traffickers, a crusade which has led rival cartels to fight for control of the profitable drug routes into the United States. 

    ‘Nothing has changed’
    Pressure from international press organizations like CPJ prompted the Calderon administration to launch an initiative to protect the country's journalists. London-based writers group PEN has called for "immediate and definitive action" to end the killings of journalists in Mexico. 

    But the killings and kidnappings continue.

    "Nothing has changed," Hernandez said.  "No one is going to protect them [journalists], they have no one to turn to for protection, but themselves."

    In Ciudad Juarez, a city that sees an average of eight murders a day, Sosa says journalists put competition for exclusive stories aside and call each other when news breaks, so they can travel to cover developments as a group. A 23-year veteran crime reporter of the award-winning El Diario, Sosa and other experienced journalists have also gotten used to giving up their byline for a simple "staff" byline  when they write a story that may infuriate a cartel leader or government official.  

    Slideshow: Narco culture permeates Mexico, leaks across border

    Mexico's drug war is also part of a drug culture with roots in music, movies and even religion

    Launch slideshow

    Self-censorship
    Journalists complain the threats have led to the spread of self-censorship.  Mexico City-based correspondent Ana Arana said much of the country is suffering from what she calls "news black holes."

    Arana runs Fundacion MEPI, an independent investigative nonprofit. In an effort to determine how pervasive self-censorship has become, the group studied the coverage of drug-related crimes by 11 regional newspapers, as well as the national edition of Milenio and El Universal in 2010 and then again in 2011.

    MEPI found that in Nuevo Laredo and other crime-ridden cities, the press was barely covering gangland executions and other drug-related crimes. And if they published stories on those types of crimes, they did so without mentioning suspects.

    "We don't know how bad things are in some regions of the country because of self-censorship," said Dallas Morning News reporter Alfredo Corchado, who has been covering Mexico for many years. "Who can blame Mexican journalists for self-censoring themselves when the government is incapable of protecting them, or even solving one case of colleagues killed," he added.

    Some Mexican authorities seem to be censoring their information too, according to many reporters. "What we are seeing is that the government forces are slow to respond, or against sharing statistics or details about specific drug violence," said Arana.

    That increasingly leaves the public depending on social media for information. Many turn to Facebook and Twitter for the latest on crime hot spots. But even that source of information is being curtailed, especially after the murder of Marisol Macias Castro.

    The 39-year-old Twitter user posted notes on the criminal activities of local cartel members last September. She was found decapitated shortly after. Two other murders have also been linked to the use of social media to denounce a drug cartel.

    The NBC station in El Paso, Texas reports on the Mexican photojournalist Alejandro Hernandez's efforts to seek asylum in the U.S. after he was kidnapped and tortured by a drug cartel.

    ‘Not going to retire because I'm scared’
    While the risk of reporting worsens, many won't give up their dangerous profession.  Sosa has told her children, now 17 and 20 years old, she does not want a funeral when she dies, because she has seen so many she has developed an aversion to them.

    But she says the drug war violence won't force her to quit. "I'm not going to retire because I'm scared or because I'm tired," she said. "This is what I know how to do and this is what I love doing." 

    Hernandez also refused to give up being a journalist, but 19 months after being kidnapped he now practices his profession in the U.S.  He was granted political asylum and now works as a photojournalist for a TV network in Texas, where he lives with his wife and three sons.

    But those still reporting from Mexico have to continue to brave the dangers.

    Culiacan reporter Javier Valdez Cardenas survived a grenade attack in the course of his work. Last year, he was the awarded the CPJ's International Press Freedom award. In his acceptance speech last September, he spoke about the grim tragedy continuing to unfold in his country.

    "Mexico is living a tragedy that should shame us,” said Cardenas.  “The youth will remember this as a time of war. Their DNA is tattooed with bullets and guns and blood, and this is a form of killing tomorrow."