elgatoloco - 3-16-2005 at 11:07 AM
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/mexico/tijuana/20050316-9...
Mexican editor to get prize for courage in drug coverage
By Anna Cearley
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
March 16, 2005
TIJUANA ? Zeta newspaper editor Jes?s Blancornelas will receive the Daniel Pearl Award for Courage and Integrity in Journalism for his coverage of
drug trafficking issues along the U.S.-Mexico border.
"This carries a lot of weight because it is in memory of a fellow reporter who was killed," Blancornelas said yesterday. "There are others who deserve
this prize more than me, but for some reason they chose me and I receive it in the name of others who cover this sort of thing."
The Los Angeles Press Club started the award in the name of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl who was killed after being kidnapped in 2002 by
Islamic militants in Pakistan.
Until now, all of the Pearl Award recipients have covered issues in the volatile Middle East. This is the first time a Mexican journalist has been
chosen, and the first time the focus has been on drug trafficking.
Blancornelas, 69, writes regularly about criminal and political issues along the Baja California border. Tapping into a large network of sources,
Blancornelas and his weekly paper provide detailed analysis of the upheavals and power shifts in the drug world.
He was the target of an attempted killing in 1997 that was linked to the region's Arellano F?lix drug cartel. His bodyguard died in the attack.
Blancornelas remains under heavy guard at all times, but the paper has suffered other losses. In 1988, his co-editor Hector F?lix Miranda was gunned
down. The Arellanos also are believed to be behind the killing last year of one of his assistant editors, Francisco Ort?z Franco.
Diana Ljungaeus, executive director of the Los Angeles Press Club, said the 14-member board decides on a nominee after discussing suggested
candidates, and then checks with the Pearl family. She said the board voted unanimously to honor Blancornelas.
"It's a great honor for us to be presenting this to him," she said. "It's a different kind of courage to actually keep on doing what he's doing under
the circumstances he is operating in. It takes true courage to keep on writing after attempts on his life."
Judea Pearl, father of Daniel Pearl, said the Pearl family was "very moved" by Blancornelas' background and persistence.
"He was unyielding, and we saw the kind of courage that underlies his professional life," Pearl said.
The award will be presented to Blancornelas in June when the Press Club's Journalism Awards are made. It is the latest of more than a dozen awards
Blancornelas has received from journalism groups and other associations throughout the world.