Death threats force journalist to flee Mexico

Mexican investigative journalist Lydia Cacho has fled the country after receiving death threats.

Cacho, a columnist for the daily Mexico City-based El Universal, tweeted on 4 August that “mafiosi are the ones that should be running, not us,” a week after telling Mexican authorities that she had received anonymous death threats via phone and e-mail for revealing the names of sex traffickers.  (more…)

Newspaper offices attacked in Mexico

Another attack targeting the Mexican media was carried out on 29 July. The Monterrey-based offices of the regional daily El Norte, a newspaper owned by the Reforma publishing group, were set on fire by armed men late on Sunday. It was the third attack on one of the daily’s offices in the past month. The office attacked Sunday covers the weddings and community events of the elite living in the upper-class enclave of Monterrey’s San Pedro Garza Garcia.

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Veracruz: reporter missing in Mexico’s most dangerous state

A reporter and photographer from the south-eastern Mexican state of Veracruz is missing.

Miguel Morales Estrada has not been seen for a week in the embattled city of Poza Rica, a town largely controlled by the Zetas drug cartel. Estrada was a freelancer for three different news outlets in the southern city. He is the third journalist reported missing in the last few months in areas that have seen confrontation between the Zetas and other drug cartels. The other two, Federico Manuel Garcia Contreras and Zane Alejandro Plemmons Rosales, both disappeared in June in the cities of San Luis Potosi and Taumalipas, also cities where the Zetas are battling for control with other cartels.

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Mexico signs ACTA despite opposition

Last week Mexico’s ambassador to Japan signed the Anti-counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA).  The approval was deemed a scandal by Mexican media. The Agreement is not widely known in the country, but serious opposition is rising up from academic and human rights organisations.  The end of the Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) was cheered here, but nobody had any idea something like ACTA was coming along. (more…)