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US worries for Mexico press freedom
The United States on Tuesday voiced concern for the safety of Mexican journalists in the country's bloody drug war after a reporter said he was granted asylum by US authorities.
Jorge Luis Aguirre, who runs the Internet news site LaPolaka.com, has lived in exile for the past two years in El Paso, Texas, which lies just across the border from the violence-torn Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez.
He said Monday that US authorities had granted him asylum -- a first for Mexican journalists in recent years -- in what he hailed as a "precedent that will help save lives among the growing number of defenseless journalists."
State Department spokesman Mark Toner declined to confirm the case, saying: "For the protection of the individuals, we can't confirm, deny or otherwise comment publicly on applications for asylum."
But he said that the United States was alarmed by the "increasing violence" against the media in Mexico.
"We have expressed our concerns about the safety of journalists to the Mexican government, which has in fact stated its commitment to protecting journalists and the freedom of the press," Toner said.
The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says that more than 30 Mexican journalists have been killed or gone missing since December 2006, when President Felipe Calderon launched a crackdown on drug gangs.
Some 28,000 people are believed to have died in drug gang-related attacks since 2006. Ciudad Juarez has been badly hit as cartels fight for control of the city, a gateway for drugs to reach the key US market.
Local newspaper El Diario de Juarez, which has seen two of its journalists shot dead, said Sunday it considered drug cartels to be the city's effective rulers of the city and asked them to lay out the red lines for its coverage.
