Mexican journalist Fredid Roman was shot dead in Guerrero’s capital Chilpancingo, the state prosecutor’s office said. He is the 15th media worker killed in Mexico this year. The country is considered the most dangerous for journalists outside the war zone.
The Reality Guerrero website, edited by Fredid Roman, focused primarily on politics at the state level. Guerrero is a state where drug gangs, armed guards and other groups clash regularly. Prosecutors have not given any details of the murder of Roman, who according to local media, was shot dead in his car.
The murder happened just one week after the freelance journalist Juan Arjon Lopez was found dead. Prosecutors said he died from a blow to the head. His body was found in San Luis Rio Colorado, across the border with Yuma, Arizona.
Mexican media reports about the journalist’s deathwww.radioformula.com.mx
The area has been hit by the violence of drug cartels in recent years. In March, volunteers looking for their victims found 11 bodies in secret death pits in the desert near a San Luis garbage dump.
Journalists are usually victims of gangs, but also of local officials and politicians who commission their killings for political or criminal motives. Journalists running small news outlets deep in Mexico are easy targets for them, human rights and freedom of speech advocates say.
Jan-Albert Hootsen, a representative of the Committee for the Protection of Journalists in Mexico, wrote after the murder of Arjon Lopez that “although there have been several arrests in earlier murders of journalists this year, a persistent atmosphere of impunity continues to fuel these attacks.”
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