A reporter in the state of Nayarit, Mexico was found dead on Dec. 1, making it the first journalist’s murder reported under new President Andrés Manuel López Obrador.
Veracruz journalist Rodrigo Acuña is in serious condition after being shot by strangers at the door of his house on the night of Nov. 23 in Mexico.
In Mexico, killing a journalist is like "killing nobody.” This is demonstrated by the high levels of violence against journalists and impunity in these cases. It is from this premise that Reporteras en Guardia (Reporters on Guard) was born.
Media from Brazil, Mexico, Argentina, Venezuela and Puerto Rico took home prizes as part of the LATAM Digital Media Awards presented by the World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA).
Mexico, Colombia and Brazil are among the top 14 countries in the world where the murderers of journalists are not punished in court.
Mexican journalist Emilio Gutiérrez Soto again requested asylum for himself and his son in an El Paso immigration court, 10 years after they turned themselves into a checkpoint at the U.S.-Mexico border and more than a year after their claim was denied.
An engineer and radio host in Acapulco, Guerrero was killed on the evening of Oct. 24 after armed people shot at the news van he was driving while returning from an assignment.
The public prosecutor's office of Chiapas confirmed the detention of a man in connection with the Sept. 21 murder of Mario Gómez, a reporter for El Heraldo de Chiapas in Mexico who was shot in the town of Yajalón while leaving his home to complete some work, according to the paper where he was employed. The official said announcements about others implicated in the case could be forthcoming.
The outgoing government of Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto has assigned 75 million Mexican pesos (US $4 million) to the Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists and ensured its operation through the end of the year.
Although Mexico is known as one of the deadliest countries in the world for journalists, the threat to media professionals in the country is not just physical. In many cases, the enemies of freedom of expression and of the press resort not to arms, but to the courts, in an attempt to silence journalistic coverage that goes against their interests.
Latin American newsrooms won four big honors at the 2018 Online Journalism Awards, prestigious prizes recognizing excellent digital journalism.
The Protection Mechanism for Human Rights Defenders and Journalists will run out of funding at the end of September, mobilizing press advocates to demand the federal government guarantee resources for the program to continue.