Stratfor Launch to Fill Mexico's Information Vacuum Tim Steller - Arizona Daily Star
go to original July 18, 2012

An Austin-based firm sees opportunity in the continuing intimidation of Mexican reporters.

Stratfor Global Intelligence launched a new product this month called the "Mexico Security Monitor," which the company says is "designed to help fill the information vacuum created by violence against journalists in Mexico."

"Customers will receive daily summaries of violence and threats, real-time alerts, weekly analysis and quarterly reports, providing a comprehensive view of the drug war," Stratfor said in its July 11 announcement.

The cost of this service? There are two levels: $350 for simple web access or $25,000 for more in-depth service.

The day of the announcement, noted Stratfor's director of public relations, Kyle Rhodes, a newspaper in Nuevo Laredo announced it will no longer write about violence between criminal groups. The morning before, the newspaper, El Mañana de Nuevo Laredo, had its building hit with an explosive, apparently a grenade, for the second time in two months.

The Committee to Protect Journalists has documented the increasing danger to journalists in Mexico and the resulting self-censorship.

"A lot of people will talk to us who won't talk to the press," Stratfor's Scott Stewart says in a promotional video. "In fact, many of the people who we talk to are reporters who will give us information that they're afraid themselves to publish."

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