For the second time this month, a Colombian journalist was shot to death; this time in Sabanalarga, in the state of Atlántico, Colombia, reported The Associated Press. Journalist Jesús Martínez, a community radio reporter in Sabanalarga, was killed Thursday, March 29.
Martínez's family said that the journalist did not receive death threats, according to the news site Terra. There were several witnesses at the crime scene, and a reward will likely be offered for finding the person responsible for the crime, said Jesús Movilla, secretary of government of Sabanalarga, according to Colombia Reports.
Martínez is the second Colombian journalist killed in the month of March. Journalist and political leader Argemiro Cárdenas Agudelo was killed on March 15. Days after the crime, a young man confessed that he was paid to to kill the journalist.
Although only one journalist, Luis Eduardo Gómez, was killed last year in Colombia, at least 202 cases of violence against journalists were recorded in 2011, according to a report by the Colombian Federation of Journalists (Fecolper in Spanish).
At the beginning of this year, Fecolper and the Foundation for Press Freedom presented reports about the deteriorating situation of press freedom in Colombia. Colombia also has one of the lowest rankings (143 of 179 countries) in Reporters Without Borders' World Press Freedom Index.
