From WNYC in New York, this is NPR's On the Media. I'm Bob Garfield.

And I'm Brooke Gladstone. Mexico's ongoing drug war has taken 28,000 lives since Mexican President Felipe Calderon began a militarized campaign against the cartels in 2006.

Among the casualties are at least 30 journalists killed

or disappeared. Last Sunday, after the murder of staff photographer Luis Carlos Santiago,

the newspaper El Diario of Ciudad Juarez printed an editorial on its front page titled,

What Do You Want from Us?

A query both angry and plaintiff directed at the cartels.

On Wednesday, Calderon announced a plan to help protect journalists, but that's likely to be of limited solace because there's no trustworthy authority in Juarez.

Harardo Rodriguez is an editor for El Diario.

Welcome to the show.

Thank you.

So can you tell me exactly what your editorial said?

It's asking the leaders of the plaza, and this is the territories that are run by violent cartels,

that in this war between them and the government, we are in the middle, under fire, and we're not getting a clear message

why are they killing our journalists.

Armando Rodriguez was a police reporter who got killed less than two years ago in front of his house, killed in front of his daughter.

His crime has not been solved, even though we had promises from the presidency.

And then, Luis, last week.

The photographer.

Yes.

He was shot in the middle of the day in a mall.

And then the killer ran and chased his companion,

...