PRESS SUMMIT TO ADDRESS VIOLENCE AGAINST JOURNALISTS

Mexican and U.S. newspaper editors will travel to El Paso in December
for a summit about violence against journalists on the border.

The American Society of News Editors will host the two-day conference
Dec. 5-6 at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The Inter American Press Association is also organizing the summit,
which will offer presentations in both English and Spanish. The El
Paso Times and The Associated Press are sponsors of the conference.

The program was developed by executives such as Robert Rivard, editor
of the San Antonio Express-News; Anders Gyllenhaal, vice president of
the McClatchy Company; and Alfredo Carbajal, managing editor of the
Spanish-language daily Al Dia in Dallas.

Alejandro Junco de la Vega, chief executive officer of Mexico's Grupo
Reforma, will be the keynote speaker. Gustavo Salas Chavez, prosecutor
of crimes against journalists in Mexico, was also invited to attend.

Representatives of the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists
will also attend the conference. The organization published a lengthy
report, "Silence or Death in Mexico's Press," in September and
criticized the lack of protection offered to reporters by the government.

At least 24 journalists have been killed in Mexico over the past four
years including Luis Carlos Santiago, a photographer with El Diario de
Juarez who was gunned down in September, and Carlos Alberto Guajardo
Romero, a crime reporter for the daily newspaper in Matamoros who was
killed in a crossfire on Friday.

Editors will discuss solutions to the problems faced by reporters
covering narco violence in states such as Chihuahua, Durango, Nuevo
Leon and Tamaulipas, where drug cartel attacks are on the rise.

Many news organizations have changed the ways they cover news. In
cities such as Nuevo Laredo, reporters have ceased reporting on
drug-related killings.