Arturo Alba Medina, a Mexican journalist and TV presenter, was killed in the crime-ridden city of Ciudad Juarez just after his program ended. This is the sixth journalist to have been murdered in Mexico this year, making it one of the most dangerous countries in the world for the media. Al Jazeera news agency reported, citing Mexican governor Javier Corral.
Corral condemned the «cowardly murder» and said he ordered the prosecutor’s office to ensure that the murderers were punished.
– Justice will be done, – the governor wrote on Twitter.
Reporters Without Borders, an international nongovernmental organization, regularly ranks Mexico alongside war-torn Syria and Afghanistan, as well as the Philippines, as one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists.
Since 2000, more than 100 reporters and other media workers have been killed in Mexico for asking questions about political corruption or powerful drug cartels.
Only a part of these crimes ended with the punishment of those responsible.
Murder rates have skyrocketed in Mexico over the past two years, highlighting the challenges that President Andrés Manuel López Obrador has faced since taking office in December 2018, promising to curtail violence in the country fueled by prominent drug cartels.
In this regard, Obrador has pledged to «care for and protect» journalists.
It is noteworthy that during his predecessor Enrique Pena Nieto’s tenure, at least 42 journalists were killed while there were about 2,000 attacks on reporters.
