Reporters Without Borders (RWB) this week presented its investigation titled “Organized Crime, The Information In Its Hands,” whose conclusion points to the fact that currently organized crime has become the main “predator” of reporters in the world. These groups outside the law are said to be those responsible for the murder of 141 journalists between 2000 and 2010.

The Paris-based RWB criticized the media for not giving this kind of criminality the attention it deserves. It added, however, that “the criminal organizations are also concerned about their reputation and for some time now have understood the strategic importance of the news media” and through the use of threats and reprisals have caused them to attach themselves “to the official discourse.”

Mafias, cartels, warlords turned into drug traffickers, paramilitaries and separatist groups that get their funding from extortion and crime are the new threats for the press and for freedom of expression, declared the RWB in its 10-page report, which can be seen on the Web site http://es.rsf.org/crimen-organizado-la-informacion-24-02-2011,39610.html.

Concerning Mexico the investigation noted that “the ferocity of the cartels explains a large part of the macabre balance – 69 journalists murdered since 2000 and another 11 missing since 2003.”

The report also stressed that the effect of the “shoot-outs” and of the corruption that these phenomena generate has numbed the senses of journalists, many of whom, “required to report and expose themselves can go no further than a rapid and often reduced treatment of the information.”