Media News - Friday, March 12, 2010

Press group: 8 reporters kidnapped in Mexican city

Eight journalists were kidnapped in a northern Mexican border city over a period of two weeks in a wave of abductions unprecedented in the Western Hemisphere, the Inter-American Press Association reported. The group said Wednesday that only three of the journalists kidnapped between Feb. 18 and March 3 in Reynosa, across the border from McAllen, Texas, have reappeared: Two were released alive and one was found dead with signs of torture. Five are still missing. The kidnappings are believed to have been carried out by drug gangs in the Gulf coast state of Tamaulipas, where Reynosa is located. State prosecutors in Tamaulipas and the federal Attorney General's Office in Mexico City could not immediately confirm the report. The press association said those close to the victims had been too afraid to report the abductions. The reporters work for print, radio and other news media outlets. On Thursday, the McAllen Monitor, a south Texas newspaper across the border from Reynosa, told its staff that they could not travel to Reynosa on assignment until further notice. The press group cited "IAPA sources who declined to name the victims or file formal complaints with the authorities out of fear of retaliation or further endangering the victims' lives." The level of intimidation has been such that most Mexican news media did not even report on the Reynosa kidnappings. (AP)

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