Hen to fox in doorway of hen house...

..."We're about to be attacked!"

President Felipe Calderon announced a plan Wednesday to protect journalists in Mexico, where violence against reporters has surged since the government launched a crackdown on drug traffickers nearly four years ago.
The plan includes an early warning system in which reporters would have immediate access to authorities when threatened, the creation of a council to identify the causes behind attacks on reporters, legal reforms, and a package of "best practices" in journalism, according to a statement from Calderon's office.

A council to ID causes behind attacks on reporters? Something so stupid could only come from government. As for the title of this entry, well, Boomer Lad had this trenchant observation in comments here:

"...no sector of society should negotiate with criminals..." is SERIOUSLY PROBLEMATIC. 

How are they supposed to interact with their government, with la mordita being part of the way their government is structured, if they aren't allowed to negotiate with criminals?  The whole government would fall apart if citizens didn't negotiate with criminals on a daily basis. 

I thought of that when I read about the "early warning system." God only knows to what extent the Mexican police and military have been infiltrated by the drug cartels, so who's to say that any number of those journalists who are feeling threatened won't unknowingly go straight to one of the cartels' informants? How can those journalists rely on the government to protect them from criminals when there are so many of them IN the government?