MEXICO CITY—Mexican President Felipe Calderon says that a police reporter and her infant son reported missing in northern Mexico two weeks ago are alive and under the federal government's protection.

Calderon says Stephania Cardoso and her 2-year-old son are being helped by federal prosecutors but he offered no other details.

Calderon spoke Friday at a ceremony where he also singed a law that requires that all crimes against journalists be investigated by federal prosecutors.

Special federal prosecutor Laura Borbolla told the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists that Cardoso had received threats and that an investigation has been opened.

Cardoso works for the El Zocalo newspaper in the city of Saltillo, about 200 miles (320 kilometers) from the U.S. border.