In two of these attacks, gunmen entered newspaper offices armed with automatic rifles and grenade launchers and opened fire. In recent weeks, there have been three attacks on newspaper offices in Mexico. Since 2000, there have been 82 homicides of journalists, 71 of which remain unsolved today. The scale of the violence and the brutality of the cartels threaten Mexico’s civil society itself, in part by undermining and intimidating the media. Since 2006, the drug war has claimed the lives of nearly 50,000 people. The horrendous toll of the cartel-driven violence – against one another, against the police and military, and against innocent civilians – is difficult for most Americans to comprehend.

The “war on drugs” is used figuratively in the United States, but in Mexico this war has become all too real. It is a choice no reporter would envy and none should be required to make. In Mexico, journalists increasingly have to decide between ignoring the violent drug cartels altogether, or putting their safety and that of their families at risk.

Freedom of the press is one of the pillars of democracy, but an unrestricted media is no longer a reality south of our border.

Do not push the red button scott adams