Drug cartels silence journalists in Mexican city

In the town of Nuevo Laredo near the Texas-Mexico border, a five-hour firefight between drug cartel members and Mexican soldiers left a dozen people dead and more wounded. But it wasn't covered by any of the city's news reporters.

That's because the region's powerful and dangerous drug cartels dictate exactly what local journalists can cover in daily e-mails and phone calls, writes Washington Post reporter William Booth.

And reporters, fearing for their lives and for their families' safety, comply with the drug lords' demands, creating a vacuum of information in the violence-wracked city. So Nuevo Laredo residents are now turning to Twitter and Facebook for information about the constant gang violence.

Since Mexico's president declared war on the nation's drug gangs in 2006, 30 journalists have been killed or have disappeared.