BORDER EDITORS DISCUSS DANGERS, CHALLENGES OF REPORTING VIOLENCE

U.S. and Mexico editors who supervise news coverage of Mexico's drug
violence agreed that reporters face dangers similar to those
encountered in war zones.

Some of the hazards include being shot at, traveling through regions
controlled by violent drug-traffickers, encountering "carjacking
stations" posing as military checkpoints, and being used by informants
with hidden agendas.

Bulletproof vests are part of the equipment the Associated Press
provides to its reporters in Mexico, said Wendy Benjamin, the AP's
Texas news editor and leader of the news organization's international
drug war beat team.

"We have U.S.-based reporters who cross the border, who are fluent in
Spanish and have experience ... some have bulletproof vests," said
Benjamin, one of the panelists Sunday at the Border Newspapers Editors
Summit at the University of Texas at El Paso.

The two-day conference that continues today is co-sponsored by UTEP,
the American Society of News Editors, the InterAmerican Press
Association, the Associated Press, the Ford Foundation and the El Paso
Times. Organizers said the conference will focus on how reporters in
Mexico can do their job with greater safety.

Alfredo Quijano, editor of El Norte de Ciudad Juarez, said,
"Informants are sometimes posted at crime scenes, and they pass on
details to reporters, such as names of homicide victims, before the
police even have the information.

"We require our reporters to identify these sources, and we discuss at
length in editorial meetings whether we should use the information
they provide," Quijano said. "We don't want to become a mouthpiece for
the drug cartels, or to become involved in their competition on who is
the toughest of their groups."

At least 24 Mexican journalists have been killed in Mexico during the
past four years, according to the New York-based Committee for the
Protection of Journalists. Brad Will, a U.S. freelance journalist
affiliated with Indymedia, was murdered in Oaxaca in 2006; his death
is unsolved.

Chris Lopez, editor of the El Paso Times, which is assisting with the
two-day conference, said he makes sure that editors in the newsroom
keep track of reporters who cross the border to report on stories.

"There's no such thing as 'green zones' in Mexico," Lopez
said.

The green zone referred to an area in Baghdad controlled by coalition
forces that provided relative safety to residents and other occupants.

Miguel Angel Vargas Quinones, editor of Contexto in Durango, Mexico,
said during a break that his staff takes a careful approach to
covering the drug cartel wars.

"For example, we avoid getting into whether this or that cartel is
behind an attack," Vargas said. "We describe the assailants only as
'armed commandos,' and this serves to avoid provoking the cartels.

"We also try to find out as much as possible about the victims, such
as if they are tied to organized crime. Reporting as completely as we
can about the victims and their attackers reduces the terror level to
the community, because the violence does not seem as random."