Mexico Drug War and the Press: Covering Cartels Is Risky Business, Says Mexican Journalist

Talk Radio News Service: "The Committee to Protect Journalists will award Mexican journalist Javier Arturo Valdez Cardenas next week with the International Press Freedom Award for his work reporting on Mexico’s dangerous drug cartels.

... “The narco commands the news,” Valdez Cardenas said. “When I’m writing, I’m not thinking about my wife, my kids, the editor, the director, the reader. I’m writing and I’m thinking about the narco as if he was behind me watching as I write, and I think ‘Will he like it? Will he get pissed off and send me a bouquet of grenades?’…You don’t have to be under direct threat, you assume you’re under threat, reality is a threat…There’s a guy always pointing a firearm at you…following you…with his finger on the trigger waiting for you to cross the line to pull it.”" read more