Article 19, the freedom of expression defense organization, decried the cyber attack on three digital newspapers in Mexico that not only were temporarily forced offline, but also had personal information, contacts and reporters' notes stolen from the server, in the case of Expediente Quintana Roo.
The website for Expediente Quintana Roo still has not been restored. The other news sites affected were Noticaribe and Cuarto Poder, both of whose sites are back online.
Article 19 said the attacks occurred the first week of July, although Expediente Quintana Roo said it was hacked at the end of June, just as it was surveying readers to evaluate the first 100 days of the new state government of Quintana Roo. The government also had just decided not to renew its contract for official advertising on the site.
Also, Article 19 added that it is collecting information about cases of intimidation and attacks against the media critical of the state government in Quintana Roo.
Some local politicians and columnists also said the state's control over the press is restricting freedom of expression.
Expediente Quintana Roo filed a complaint with the prosecutor's office, reported NotiSureste. Read here, in Spanish, the details.
In January, in the northern Mexican city of Monterrey, Telediario also was hacked, and at the beginning of July, hackers blocked access to the website of the Honduran newspaper El Libertador.
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.
