Mexican Media and the Drug Cartels

For decades, there has been a deadly drug war going on in Mexico between the various cartels based in the country. One ramification of this war has been that journalists have been caught in the crossfire. Not only that, media has come to play an instrumental role on both sides of the war.

For the drug cartels, media has been their main means of instilling fear and promoting their executions. Since 2006, drug cartels have been accused of kidnapping and murdering over 100,000 people! Media outlets pay a price, however, if they report negatively on the cartels. From 2000 to 2013, 88 journalists have been murdered with another 18 vanishing (Kirchner)! 

If any Mexican newspapers cover a cartel's violent endeavors along the US-Mexico border, then that cartel will respond by injuring or killing a member of that newspaper. It got so bad that El Diario de Juarez published an editorial imploring the cartels to stop and that the newspaper would do whatever was necessary to make the violence against them end. The cartels never responded (Kirchner).

Under current Mexican president, Enrique Pena Nieton, media coverage of cartel action has gone down tremendously. President Pena Nieto's crackdown attempts against the cartel actually prompted them to commence their murdering sprees (Tuckman). Since taking office, Pena Nieto has spoken out less and less against the cartels and on TV the words "organized crime" and "cartel" have all but vanished (Tuckman). 

Part of the diminishing coverage of the drug cartels is that the shock value is gone. People are not horrified when they find out about a journalist who was executed or that five media members were killed via fire squad because they spoke negatively of the cartel. As it turns out, some people actually seek out these horrific murder videos and photos via social media (Kirchner).

Even though journalists bare the brunt of the cartels' wrath, that does not mean that local citizens who bash the cartels via blogs are safe either. In 2011, two Mexican bloggers were found dead in Nuevo Laredo with notes on them accusing them of being "Internet snitches" (Kirchner). This has put many Mexican citizens on edge as people censor themselves on Twitter as a means to avoid cartel retaliation (Kirchner). The people are afraid, and with the media reporting less and less on cartel activity and journalists disappearing and dying, it appears that the cartel will be going nowhere anytime soon.

Sources:

          Kirchner, Lauren. "Media as Both Weapon and Defense in the Mexican Drug War." 11 Mar. 2014. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <http://www.psmag.com/health-and-behavior/media-weapon-defense-mexican-drug-war-76243>.

          Tuckman, Jo. "Journalists on Front Line of Mexico Drug War: 'Fear Is Terrible and Well Founded'" 9 Apr. 2013. Web. 26 Mar. 2015. <http://www.theguardian.com/world/2013/apr/09/mexico-drug-war-journalists-fear>.