TV host José Luis Cerda of the Televisa network was found assassinated in the northern city of Monterrey—which in recent months has become the site of several attacks on media and aggression on the press by organized crime. He was kidnapped the day before by a group of armed men, Terra reports.
Televisa confirmed Friday that the body of the host of “El Club,” an entertainment program, was found with several gunshots, the EFE news agency reports. His body was left in a vacant lot with his hands tied behind his back and was spotted by motorists who passed nearby, Info7.mx explains.
Cerda had been kidnapped Thursday outside Televisa’s offices in Monterrey on the way to his car, BBC says.
The TV host was killed only hours after some 50 media organizations signed an agreement to adopt unified editorial criteria about the coverage of narcotrafficking, with the goal of protecting journalists and avoiding sensationalism in stories and images published about the topic.
Violence linked to drug trafficking has exploded in recent years in Mexico, where more than 60 journalists have been assassinated since 2000. In the last year alone, 139 media employees and 21 news organizations were attacked in the same period, while several reporters chose exile after being kidnapped or threatened by drug gangs.
For more details about violence against journalists in Mexico, see this Knight Center map.
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.
