RSF Adds CJNG Cartel to Press Freedom Predators List as 169 Journalists Killed
Reporters Without Borders put the CJNG cartel on its press freedom predators list. It counts 169 journalists killed in Mexico since 2006 and 24 missing.
Reporters Without Borders (Reporteros Sin Fronteras, RSF), the Paris-based press freedom group, has added the Jalisco New Generation Cartel (Cártel Jalisco Nueva Generación, CJNG) to its list of “Predators of Press Freedom,” El Financiero reported. RSF counts 169 journalists killed in Mexico since 2006, and it says the cartel is one of the groups behind that toll.
The listing puts a criminal organization alongside heads of state such as Donald Trump, Benjamin Netanyahu, Vladimir Putin and Javier Milei, whom RSF names on the same list for harm done to the press.
Why RSF singled out the CJNG
According to RSF, the CJNG uses threats, kidnappings of reporters and open violence to scare journalists and control what gets published about it. Local reporters who investigate organized crime are the most exposed.
The group pointed to events of Feb. 22, the day cartel founder Nemesio Oseguera, known as “El Mencho,” died after a security operation in Tapalpa, Jalisco. The CJNG responded with a wave of violence, and several journalists covering it were attacked, threatened or had their equipment taken, El Financiero reported.
The cartel has also issued public threats against national figures, including journalists Azucena Uresti and Carlos Jiménez, who is known as “C4.” In a 2021 statement to the media, the CJNG said it was against those who attack it directly, not against free expression. RSF describes the cartel’s main tool against the press as a law of silence enforced through torture and constant intimidation.
The numbers behind the listing
- 169 journalists killed in Mexico since 2006, according to RSF.
- 98% of them were local reporters rather than national or foreign correspondents.
- 34 of those killed had suffered violence before their deaths, as far as records show.
- At least 100 of the journalists killed in the last 20 years covered crime and police news; about 78 also covered politics.
- 24 journalists went missing between 2006 and 2026.
RSF names organized crime and corruption as the main forces behind the killings. The CJNG is one of several actors the group holds responsible; RSF does not attribute every case to the cartel.
What it means for people in Mexico
For readers in Mexico City, the listing is a reminder of how uneven news coverage can be outside the capital. When local reporters in cartel-dominated areas stop covering crime because of threats, residents and visitors lose a main source of information about road safety, security incidents and local government.
That also affects how news from other states reaches the capital. Many stories about violence in places such as Jalisco start with local reporters, the group RSF says faces the most danger. The “predators” list itself carries no legal weight in Mexico. It is a public naming by an international press group, meant to draw attention to who is responsible for attacks on journalists.
The cartel has not publicly responded to the listing, according to the report.
Source: telegra.ph
