Most major national news outlets in Mexico have signed onto a 10 point plan that lays out ground rules for reporting on the Drug War.

Some hail it as a necessary code of ethics in a media environment that often sensationalizes violent news stories. Others condemn it for further restricting a press that already practices a significant amount of self-censorship.

Among the rules are the requirements that reporters take a position against violence perpetrated by organized crime, not allow themselves to become “involuntary spokespersons” for the cartels, and “not interfere in the combat against crime” by publishing information that could put an investigation or operation at risk.

Only four major national media outlets have not signed onto the pact; 2 newspapers (La Jornada and Reforma), the weekly investigative news magazine Proceso, and the MVS broadcasting company. Another notable exception is the Diario de Juárez, the leading newspaper in the city known as ground zero for the militarized offensive against organized crime. But even those outlets may face pressure to conform to the new guidelines.

Mexican senators have indicated they’ll move a proposal as early as next week to make the voluntary reporting guidelines law.

Plaque for Marisela Escobedo (photo: Juan Carlos Solis)

Yet again, women fighting endemic impunity in the state of Chihuahua have come under threat.

Just yesterday, Melissa del Bosque of the Texas Observer wrote about the campaign of threats, intimidations, and assassinations aimed at the women of Chihuahua “who speak out against the deaths and disappearances in their communities”. Read her article to put the following in context.

This morning, a “narco-banner” appeared outside of a middle school in Ciudad Júarez. The 6-foot long banner contained a message aimed at Marisela Ortiz, co-founder of “May Our Daughters Return Home“, an organization which seeks justice for young women who have been murdered in Juárez in a string of killings known as femicides.

According to a report in the local “Diario de Juárez” newspaper, the banner stated: “If you want to keep supporting the fucking asshole lawyer Malu, little shit teacher Marisela Ortiz we’re going to fuck up your family starting with your son “el chapolin” Rowe who is already on our list. Sincerly, J.L.___________”.

Marisela Ortiz teaches at the middle school where the banner was hung and was alerted about its content via a phone call from the principal. “Malu” is the nickname of Ortiz’s organizational colleague, Maria Luisa García Andrade, who left Ciudad Juárez two days after part of her house was set on fire. García Andrade was supporting a protest encampment calling for the return of 3 abducted members of the Reyes Salazar family, which has lost 6 people in less than 3 years.

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[What follows is a transcript of a report produced for FSRN on Friday, March 4, 2011. Downloadable mp3

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President Barack Obama met with his Mexican counterpart, Felipe Calderon this week for a high-level summit on bi-lateral relations. The outcome of the summit was not surprising and included, White House praises for what amounts to Calderon’s militarization of large swaths of Mexico under the mantle of fighting organized crime.

BARACK OBAMA: “I have nothing but admiration for President Calderon in his willingness to take this on. The easy thing to do would be for him to ignore the corrosive, corrupting influence of these drug cartels within Mexico. That would be the easy thing to do. He’s taking the hard path and he’s shown great courage and great risk in doing so. And the United States will support him in any ways that we can to help him achieve his goals because his goals are our goals as well…and they should be the goals of the Mexican people.”

But not all of the Mexican people share the goals outlined by the United States. Mexico is experiencing some of the worst violence since the end of its Revolution.

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A record-breaking 15,000 people died in Mexico last year within the context of the militarized Drug War, bringing the overall 4-year total to around 35,000 murders. Most of the violence has occurred in the northern states and coastal areas.

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More than 35,000 Mexicans have been killed since President Felipe Calderón launched a militarized offensive in areas with a strong drug cartel presence. More than 15,000 of those deaths occurred in 2010.

It’s gotten to the point that massacres have become near daily events in Mexico…and behind each of those massacres are the stories of the people who died and their families. These back stories are what investigative reporter Marcela Turati has documented in her new book, “Fuego Cruzado” – or “Crossfire” in English.

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Turati sat down with South Notes recently to discuss these stories that go uncovered in a media landscape that can barely keep up with registering the daily death toll. The audio is in Spanish.