"Media outlets have social responsibilities and have to serve the public," said Carlos Lauria, of the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.
BLOG DEL NARCO VIDEO FREE
"We don't want problems with them."Ĭritics say it's free public relations for the cartels. "We don't insult them, we don't say one specific group is the bad one," he said. It can be extremely gory, but his neutrality has helped build his credibility. The blogger said he provides an uncensored platform, posting photographs and videos he receives regardless of content or cartel affiliation. While there are numerous blogs on Mexico's drug war, Blog del Narco seems to be the first used by the traffickers themselves. "But as long as I don't hear from her father, I won't take them down." "The girl wrote to me and told me, in a threatening way, to take down her photos," the blogger said.
"For the scanty details that they (mass media) put on television, they get grenades thrown at them and their reporters kidnapped," the blogger said. The violence has killed more then 28,000 people and made Mexico one of the world's most dangerous countries for journalists, which explains why Blog del Narco cloaks itself so heavily in anonymity. "When it comes to information, the Mexican public safety agencies don't even shoot in self-defense." "You authorities have placed Mexicans in the middle of a shootout where it's not clear where the bullets are coming from," journalist Hector Aguilar Camin said at a recent forum evaluating the government's strategy for fighting organized crime. Indeed, President Felipe Calderon has heard complaints that his government is not putting out enough information to allow people to function and stay safe. "People now demand information and if you don't publish it, they complain," he said.
He said he is a student in northern Mexico majoring in computer security, that he launched the blog in March as a "hobby," but it now has grown to hundreds of postings a day and 3 million hits a week. The Associated Press wrote to the blog's e-mail address, and the blogger called back from a disguised phone number. The mysterious blogger hides his identity behind an elaborate cyber-screen. In at least one case Blog del Narco may have led to a major arrest - of a prison warden after a video posting detailed her alleged system of setting inmates free at night to carry out killings for a drug cartel. The undifferentiated content suggests that all sides are using the blog - drug gangs to project their power, law enforcement to show that it too can play rough, and the public to learn about incidents that the mainstream media are forced to ignore or play down. Others depict crime scenes accessible only to military or police. Many postings, including warnings and a beheading, appear to come directly from drug traffickers. Operating from behind a thick curtain of computer security, Blog del Narco in less than six months has become Mexico's go-to Internet site at a time when mainstream media are feeling pressure and threats to stay away from the story. MEXICO CITY – An anonymous, twentysomething blogger is giving Mexicans what they can't get elsewhere - an inside view of their country's raging drug war.
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