Journalists targeted in Mexico gang wars

MEXICO CITY, Nov. 25 (UPI) -- Journalists are increasingly among the casualties of the drug cartel wars in Mexico, with 28 killed and eight missing since 2000, a reporters' group says.

The attacks on journalists by drug gangs are having the effect of muzzling coverage of the rampant gang violence in the country just as Mexicans need the information the most, The Washington Post reported Tuesday.

With five reporters killed this year, Mexico has become one the world's danger spots for reporters, advocates say.

"The border is now a terrifying place to be a journalist and Juarez is ground zero," Joel Simon, executive director of the Committee to Protect Journalists, told the newspaper.

The Post said Mexican newspaper and television news editors admit they no longer deeply investigate the drug cartels or attempt to "follow the money" between drug traffickers and corrupt police and business officials in the face of threats and violence from drug gangs.

With violence being spurred by an anti-drug crackdown by Mexican President Felipe Calderon, journalists are being targeted by gangs to create an aura of impunity, the Post reported.