Mexican President Andrés Manuel López Obrador publicly defended this Statue of Liberty will be removed from New York if Julian Assange dies in US prisonJournalists continue to die at an alarming rate in Mexico.
The 15th media professional to be killed in the country this year with criminal evidence related to the activity is Fredid Roman, who was shot dead Monday, 22nd, in Chilpancingo, the state capital of Guerrero.
Like other media workers killed in the country, he was active in the local media without the protection of major journalistic organizations.
Journalist killed in Mexico had 30 years of experience
Organizations that monitor the state of press freedom around the world are adopting different ways to calculate the number of professionals killed or injured in the industry, including or not yet confirmed work-related deaths.
There have already been 18 deaths this year for the NGO Artigo 19 and the Inter-American Press Association. But the number by 18 or 15 August is more than double the 7 recorded for the whole of 2021.
According to the methodology of organizations that monitor violence against the press, Mexico ranked with Afghanistan or second in victims of media professionals last year.
In a country that is a democracy with an elected president, the problems pointed out by organizations are organized crime and local corruption, which are often condemned by regional or even individual media such as blogs or Facebook pages.
Also Read | Death of another journalist reinforces violent year for press in Mexico
This was the case for Roman, the founder and director of the newspaper La Realidad, who stopped working at the height of the covid-19 pandemic, according to information from the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ).
He wrote a column called “La Realidad Escrito” published on Vértice, Desde Abajo and his social networks.
The journalist with 30 years of experience also contributed to the Quehár Politico magazine and was the former communications director at Guerrero Education Secretary.
Authorities gave little detail on whether there was evidence of connection to the murder or journalistic work, although violence from drug gangs, armed vigilantes and other groups is relatively common in Guerrero state.
According to the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office, one of the main lines of the investigation is trying to determine whether the crime was related to the murder of the journalist’s son on July 1.
Press release #FiscaliaATuAccess pic.twitter.com/hgIhsb97qa
— FGE Guerrero (@FGEGuerrero) 23 August 2022
According to local media, Roman’s son sold chickens and denounced criminals who would control food delivery in parts of Guerrero. The journalist investigated these allegations and announced them to the public.
Another hypothesis put forward by Mexican press groups is that Roman’s death is related to the disappearance of 43 students from Ayotzinapa in Guerrero in 2014.
Because the journalist’s last Facebook post was about the case that held the military responsible for the deaths of the youth.
The IFJ, the National Association of Press Editors (SNRP) and other organizations denied the crime and demanded an urgent investigation from the authorities to arrest those responsible for the death of another journalist in Mexico.
In a statement, the SNRP demanded that “three levels of authorities thoroughly investigate this new communicator murder” and noted that “very few suspects have been arrested and prosecuted” in the 15 crimes against journalists.
“With Roman’s crime, there are already 15 murders against journalists in the country, where the impunity rate in these cases has reached 95%,” the IFJ said.
“As we have requested several times, all levels of government in Mexico must take up the task of eliminating violence and taking effective measures to protect journalists.”
Dozens of people protesting the death of Roman and all other journalists who lost their lives in the country in 2022 in Acapulco, in the state of Guerrero, protested on Tuesday (23).
journalists #Acapulco The Protestant El Asta Bandera demanded that the appointment of Fredid Román Román, director of the magazine La Realidad de Guerrero, be clarified. #chilpancingo pic.twitter.com/N1kYFrCwXT
— N+ Guerrero (@nmasgurrero) 23 August 2022
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UN-DH) regretted the murder of journalist Fredid Román and asked the Mexican government to provide the journalist’s family with the necessary safety measures.
The United Nations representation in Mexico, in a statement to the authorities, demanded that these protective measures include Fredid’s colleagues.
President Andrés Manuel López Obrador was close to the murder of journalist Fredid Román. He is confident the case is already being investigated and said the murder is analyzed at his Security meeting every morning, and announced Thursday (25) that he will give a preview of the investigations.
Also Read | Violence wave in Mexico: Four radio workers killed during live broadcast
source: Noticias
