American journalist Al Giordano runs Narco News from his laptop in Mexico, reporting on the drug trade with a decidedly activist slant that aims to get under the skin of drug traffickers, money launderers, corrupt governments, and journalists for big news companies he thinks have overlooked important stories in Latin America.

Among his targets has been Roberto Hern?ndez Ramirez, the president and primary shareholder in Banco Nacional de Mexico (known as Banamex), Mexico's second biggest bank, which was acquired last month by Citigroup for $12.5 billion.

Hern?ndez, whose stock value would be $1.9 billion if the deal goes through, was first accused in 1996 by the Mexican newspaper Por Esto! and later by Narco News of cocaine trafficking, money laundering and other illicit acts. He has vigorously denied the charges and pressed for sanctions against Por Esto! in three Mexican courts, both for publishing the stories and for taking photos on his private beachfront in the Yucat?n. Three Mexican courts dismissed the case. (See sidebar, Mexican Bank, Mexican Web Site, New York Courtroom.)

But now, Banamex has brought a libel suit in New York against Narco News, Giordano, and Mexican journalist Mario Renato Men?ndez Rodriguez. It claims the state has jurisdiction in the case because Narco News' site is registered at a post office box in Manhattan and Giordano repeated the drug allegations at a forum at the Columbia University School of Law, among other reasons.

The parties had their first hearing in the suit July 20 in New York, where Judge Paula Omansky expressed concern about her court's jurisdiction and sought to find out exactly what happened in the Mexican courtrooms. She has asked both sides to file affidavits before the next hearing begins.

The ramifications of the libel suit extend well beyond this case. An attorney for Narco News filed a motion to dismiss, arguing that if the lawsuit is allowed to proceed, it would send a signal to libel plaintiffs that they could shop for a friendly forum in which to sue any Web site anywhere in the world -- a precedent that would imperil free speech on the Net.

OJR spoke to Giordano, a former writer for the Boston Phoenix, last week at a Greenwich Village restaurant for more than an hour about his case, the Web site and public journalism. What follows is an edited transcript of that conversation.

Q. How did you start Narco News?

A. I went to Mexico in July 1997 and I spent the better part of the next year retired from journalism. I'd had it. I was a political reporter and there was nothing happening anymore in politics. And the state of journalism itself bothered me. ... I went to Chiapas with the idea of learning from the Zapatista independent rebels because they seemed to be the only ones in the hemisphere having any success at making social change.

The Zapatistas taught me what I should have already known: 'Look, we don't want you to live like an Indian. We just want the right to live as who we are. And who you are is a journalist.' (And I responded,) 'No, I'm not.' They got me thinking maybe there was a way to do journalism without being beholden to advertisers or the constant struggle to pitch work at a market niche that is bought by consumer products. And much of the alternative press has really gone down that route just as a matter of economic survival. They had to. But what I want to do as journalism seems to be dying.

Q. Have you found a way to do that and still make a living?

A. I don't make enough to live in New York, but I make enough to live comfortably in Mexico. The cost of living is very cheap.

Q. So you're still doing freelancing?

A. Yes, I do translation work and analysis work. I get small grants so it seems to be working out.

Q. But does Narco News have any income?

A. No, it doesn't even have a bank account. It has a defense fund now, but that all goes to lawyers. I have regularly been approached by people who want to advertise because they're looking at the hit count and it's quite substantial. But part of the point of Narco News is that it doesn't need to make money. It really needs no more than your $270 annual (payment) to the ISP. I use Hotmail, which is a free Internet service, and part of the thing is that you don't need a large corporation or sponsor behind you.

Q. Let's talk a little about the site. How many hits you get?

A. Before we got sued we had an average of 3,000 hits a day and now we have an average of 25,000 hits a day.

Q. Do you know where your audience is from?

A. Primarily the English-speaking world, but whatever method we use to measure hits, the part about how they measure what countries they come from doesn't work. But I have almost 1,000 subscribers now. And a good solid percentage of them are journalists, from the United States, from Mexico, from the rest of Latin America, and the rest are from Europe.

Q. And has that mostly been since the trial got underway?

A. I had 185 subscribers when the Village Voice published the story last December.

Q. Are you kind of a one-man Narco News?

A. Yes.

Q. You had something way down there (on the site) that refers to correspondents. Do you have people feeding you stuff they couldn't print elsewhere or were giving you tips?

A. All of that. This is a project in citizen journalism. From day one we have always invited the public to participate, to criticize, to publish their thoughts whenever it was relevant or newsworthy.

Q. You say this is a project in public journalism. Talk to me about how this has been a success as public journalism and where you would like to go with it. Say the lawsuit goes away, what is Narco News in your wildest dreams?

A. Narco News will simply stick to what works, which is translating the work of courageous Latin American journalists and commentators and perspectives on the war on drugs that are generally not heard in the English-speaking world. And doing original reporting, analysis and commentary, and offering space for myself and others on the drug war in Latin America and the United States' drug policy.

Narco News is born to die. The day that drugs are legalized, the day there is no more narco trade, the day there is no more mafia, Narco News will simply be an archive. It's not a profit-making venture. But unfortunately, it looks like Narco News is going to be around for a while.

Q. Are you married, or have kids? Assets?

A. I have no kids. I have no assets. I own no property. I own no car. When I left the Boston Phoenix, I defaulted on my credit card and I went to Mexico with $800 to my name. I own a laptop, which was bought with a grant from the Angelica Foundation, and I own a guitar that I use sometimes to supplement my income. Obviously Banamex has plenty of laptops, so I figure that Roberto Hern?ndez is after my guitar, but he ain't getting' it.

Q. If somebody else wanted to start an activist Web site but owns a house and has some assets -- should he have no assets to start a Web site like this?

A. No, I would recommend that he join the National Writers Union and take out libel insurance, which is something any NWU member can do. People can do what silly old me should have done.

Q. Who else has been supporting you? I know you have the Electronic Frontier Foundation filing a brief, but what about the First Amendment Coalition or other newspapers?

A. Nope. Nope. Nope.

Q. Have you contacted them?

A. I have contacted them all.

Q. And can you summarize why they said no?

A. You should call them and ask. I think in some cases the organizations are sincere and overburdened. Some say that because it's in a state court a national organization can't do it. Or because it's a foreign case they can't do it. ... This case is going to make new law. It is either going to make good law or it is going to make bad law. That's why we're here. I could have avoided this; I didn't have to be here. But if I didn't come, then every other Internet site in the world, every other activist site would be in greater jeopardy because of my own cowardice.

Q. What's the most important element of this case?

A. It's the big economic powers that forum shop and use the courts to harass people of modest means. That is the real threat to free speech in this day and age. In other words, it's not the government anymore doing the censorship, it's the private sector. It's the new ruler.

Q. Anything else you'd like to add?

A. In Banamex's motion to dismiss, they sought to add more reasons why they had jurisdiction in New York, each of them more spurious than the next. The most outrageous one was that they claimed because in the days after we founded Narco News, I received an invitation from the Media Channel, at Mediachannel.org, to affiliate with them. Now, there're no dues involved, there's no payment, there's no financial transaction involved. It is just a show of solidarity with other authentic journalists around the world. The Media Channel now has more than 600 affiliates. ... Banamex is trying to establish a precedent here where any one of these could be hauled into New York court for something they said in their home country. This is outrageous.

Q. Are they based here?

A. Yes, they are based in Times Square. Imagine the consequences not just for the Media Channel and its affiliates but for every journalism organization that has an office in New York, or for citizen organizations. New York would lose its role as a haven for free speech. And I'm not just talking about journalism, I'm talking about Broadway, the union movement, I'm talking about the Statue of Liberty, opening the doors up for people to pursue a certain kind of freedom. This is being threatened by the new world economic order, where people with lots of money can just throw their money around and abuse the court system. That's what is at stake here.

Q. Do you think you're going to get a fair trial?

A. Yes.

Q. Anything else you want to add?

A. I have not stopped publishing about Hernandez or Banamex or Citigroup or any of the parties here. To the contrary, ever since I learned about the lawsuit, and particularly after the Citigroup-Banamex merger were announced in May, I have published far more about all three entities than I had before the lawsuit was filed. We start reporting again next month. Stay tuned.