Following threats against his life, another journalist from Veracruz, Mexico has decided to seek asylum abroad, reported the Foundation for Freedom of Expression. Andrés Timoteo Morales, reporter for the La Jornada newspaper and columnist for the newspaper Notiver in the city of Veracruz, is currently soliciting asylum in France, according to the newspaper Tabasco Hoy.
Morales worked with four journalists killed while working for the newspaper Notiver, including the assistant director, Miguel Ángel López Velasco, reporter Yolanda Ordaz de la Cruz, and photographers Misael López Solana, Guillermo Luna and Gabriel Huge, according to the newspaper.
Morales stopped publishing in the national newspaper La Jornada on April 28, after his friend Regina Martínez, a reporter for Proceso, was killed in Xalapa, the capital of Veracruz. The journalist received several threats, including an instance where all his professional equipment was stolen from his home, reported Proceso. Morales decided to move after the break-in.
Morales wrote the column Texto Irreverente for Notiver and was a fierce critic of the governor of Veracruz, Javier Duarte, and spokeswoman Georgina Domínguez Colio.
After the unsolved killings of nine journalists in 18 months, several reporters have fled Veracruz, considered one of the 10 most dangerous places in the world for the press, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French).
RSF estimated that some 15 Mexican journalists have sought refuge abroad after receiving threats.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
