By. PressTV

 

A Mexican city on the US border, despite having a strong news network, avoids coverage of drug violence due to death threats it receives from drug gangs.

 

Nuevo Laredo, the busiest city along the US-Mexico border and a vital US trade location, has three television news channels, four daily newspapers and at least five radio stations that broadcast news.

 

But in case of a drug-related violence in the populated city, journalists prefer not to cover it in order to protect their own lives and their families.

 

The narcotics news blackout maintained by the Mexican journalists is under strict orders issued by the drug lords and their accomplices, who insist on censoring drug-related events in the town through daily telephone calls, e-mails and news releases.

 

"We are under their complete control," said an anonymous veteran journalist, quoted in a Washington Post article on Monday.

 

"The cartels have eyes and ears inside our company," said one editor who insisted to talk with the Post away from his office.

 

According to the Post, even in the case of an attack on a news outlet, the news center says nothing on the assault.

 

"The chaos, the disintegration we are seeing in the Mexican media as the drug war continues is without precedent," said Rosental Alves, director of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at the University of Texas at Austin.

 

They are not only the journalists who are intimidated to turn a blind eye on the drug violence in Nuevo Laredo, as in some cases even government officials refuses to discuss the drug violence.

 

The city's mayor did not show up for days and refrained from discussing drug violence.

 

"Intimidation and coercion have been taken to an extreme level. This drug war is also a war of information. The cartels are now telling reporters what they can and cannot print, and the drug organizations themselves are the content providers," said Carlos Lauria, the Latin America director of the Committee to Protect Journalists.

 

"The Mexican government cannot lose this fight over information. It is at the very center of democracy."

 

According to Lauria, Mexico is one of the most dangerous spots for reporters.

 

More than 30 journalists have been killed or have disappeared since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out war against organized crime and drug cartels in December 2006.

 

More than 25,000 Mexicans have died in drug-related violence in recent years.