Tickets available for Monday's film screening & panel discussion on dangers facing Mexican journalists

Tickets are still available for the National Press Club's Journalism Institute’s screening of a film by Everardo González called "El Paso" and a short panel discussion on the dangers Mexico's journalists face.

The event is scheduled for Monday, Sept. 11, at 6:30 p.m. in the Club's Murrow Room. The event is free but reservations are necessary; tickets can be reserved here.

"El Paso" tells the story of journalists fleeing their home country of Mexico to seek safe haven in the United States.

González, an award-winning documentarian, sheds light on the journalists who risk their lives covering the Mexican drug trade. The film tells the story of two journalists: Alejandro Hernández Pacheco, a Televisa cameraman from Torreón, Mexico, who was kidnapped after filming a report in a local prison, and Ricardo Chávez Aldana, a Juárez radio personality who began to use his program to speak openly about the individuals involved in a bloody turf war. Both struggle to adapt to a new life after seeking asylum in the U.S. See the trailer of "El Paso" here.

The panel discussion features Mexican journalist Martin Mendez Pineda, and Margaux Ewen, advocacy and communications director for the North America office of Reporters Without Borders. Mendez Pineda, a former reporter for the Guerrero-based Novedades Acapulco newspaper, sought asylum in the U.S. earlier this year after receiving multiple death threats in Mexico. He was detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in El Paso, Texas, for more than three months before withdrawing his asylum request and returning home, despite the threats he still faces.

John M. Donnelly, award-winning journalist working for CQ Roll Call and chairman of the National Press Club’s Press Freedom Team, will serve as moderator.