According to reports, eight journalists have been abducted in the past two weeks from the northeastern states of Tamaulipas and Nuevo León, which border the United States.

“An escalating internal dispute among drug cartel members has claimed over 200 lives in 14 days and contributed to a media blackout of coverage of the violence, with threats, attacks and kidnapping of journalists effectively leading to an unprecedented level of self-censorship,” WAN-IFRA said in a statement.

One journalist has died, allegedly from injuries received at the hands of his captors, while two have subsequently been released. Five others are still missing, including reporters from El Mañana and El Tarde newspapers, two online news journalists and a TV cameraman.

In the statement, WAN-IFRA condemned the abductions and called on the Mexican government to do everything in its power to ensure the perpetrators are brought to justice. “We urge the Mexican authorities to issue an immediate and effective response to end this violent series of attacks and ensure an environment in which journalists are able to carry out their professional duties without fear of violence, intimidation or reprisal.”

WAN-IFRA is the global organisation for the world’s newspapers and news publishers, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organisation groups 18,000 publications, 15,000 online sites and over 3,000 companies in more than 120 countries.

The organisation was created through the merger of the World Association of Newspapers and IFRA, the research and service organisation for the news publishing industry.

Learn more about WAN-IFRA at www.wan-ifra.org/ or through the WAN-IFRA Magazine.

Inquiries to: Larry Kilman, Director of Communications and Public Affairs, WAN-IFRA, 7 rue Geoffroy St Hilaire, 75005 Paris, France. Tel: +33 6 10 28 97 36. E-mail: larry.kilman@wan-ifra.org.