Press Freedom Under Attack in Mexico as TV Anchor Gets Death Threat from Cartel over Reporting
Prominent Mexican news anchor Azucena Uresti took to the airwaves this week to stand up to one of the country's most powerful drug cartels, the Jalisco New Generation, after the group posted a video online directly threatening her life. Uresti regularly reports on cartel violence and organized crime. The Committee to Protect Journalists considers Mexico the most dangerous country for journalists in the Western Hemisphere, where about 120 journalists have been killed since 2000, with four murders this year alone. Jan-Albert Hootsen, Mexico correspondent for the Committee to Protect Journalists, says the cartels are engaged in informational warfare" and see the press as a threat to their operations. They're trying to strike terror in the hearts of Mexican reporters," says Hootsen.