Pubdate: Sun, 3 Oct 2010 Source: El Paso Times (TX) Copyright: 2010 El Paso Times Contact: http://www.elpasotimes.com/townhall/ci_14227323 Website: http://www.elpasotimes.com/ Details: http://www.mapinc.org/media/829 Author: Chris Lopez Bookmark: http://www.mapinc.org/source/El+Paso+Times Bookmark: http://mapinc.org/topic/Juarez IT'S OUR JOB TO GO TO JUAREZ TO COVER NEWS A Dallas television station was in our newsroom on Friday talking to reporters about why we venture into Juarez to report on El Paso's sister city. My take was this: "Are you afraid to cross into Juarez to report?" "No." "Why do you do it?" "Well, because we're journalists and reporting on significant stories concerning the border is what we do." A student from Georgetown University e-mailed similar questions this week for a paper he is writing. One of his was: "Have you debated on whether or not you should print content regarding the drug war?" "No, there is no debate. We cover Juarez and Mexico, and that's just what we do. We would be shirking our responsibilities if we didn't report on the drug war next door, and the integrity of our work as a newsroom would be compromised if we didn't report on something because we were influenced or afraid of what might happen to us." We do preach safety to our reporters, and we have procedures in place to ensure communication when we have journalists working in Mexico. The reporters we send also have the proper visas to work in Mexico and to cross back and forth between countries. Myself, I have a visa issued by Mexico that allows me to work in that country. I cross into Juarez because it helps me keep a sense of how things are. I get a better feel for a situation when I experience it up close rather than sitting in an office, even if that office is just a few miles away. We are not the only American or foreign journalists working in Mexico. As the violence in Mexico has escalated over the past two years, many U.S. news organizations have dispatched journalists to report out of that country. The BBC also has had a steady presence throughout. The Associated Press has been doing outstanding work from Mexico. So has McClatchy, the Washington Post, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and on and on. We feel like the El Paso Times is the most authoritative voice on the Juarez situation. We're there every week. We report on Juarez -- the good and the bad -- in some fashion, every day. One of our journalists just spent three weeks in Juarez, reporting stories and collecting information for future stories. We had another reporter in Juarez earlier in the week to visit with the Rev. James Hinde, whose story you can find on today's front page. When the cockroaches killed 6-year-old Eileen Armendariz of Canutillo while she was visiting her father in Juarez, who also was killed, we laid out the facts as we knew them. When the townspeople of Ascension rose up and took matters into their own hands, we went to that community on the Mexico-New Mexico border to learn more. We toured maquiladora factories earlier in the week and you can see photographs from that tour in today's newspaper. We will continue to venture into Juarez and continue our proactive reporting on the situation in Mexico. It's another story and it's what we do. - --- MAP posted-by: Richard Lake