10 Jan 12 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
A Mexican journalist has been murdered by an armed gang during a high-speed car chase. Raúl Régulo Garza Quirino, from local weekly newspaper La Última Palabra, in Nuevo León, was killed as he tried to escape the bullets of an armed gang who were firing at him from two pursuing vehicles. Quirino’s body was discovered in front of a mechanic shop, owned by a relative. Quirino is the first journalist to be killed in Mexico in 2012. In 2011, the country was named the world’s most dangerous country to practice journalism, by the International Press Institute (IPI).
02 Dec 11 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
Slander and libel have been decriminalised by the Mexican Senate. The senate approved the repeal of Articles 1 and 31 of the Crimes Act, with a unanimous decision. Mexico have joined El Salvador as the second Latin American country to decriminalise honour crimes. The decision follows the end of a seven-year defamation trial where the newspaper La Jornada accused magazine Letras Libres of damaging its reputation. The court determined that freedom of expression supersedes the right to honour.
02 Nov 11 | News and features
MURDERED 2 NOVEMBER 2005
Journalist, “El Tiempo de Durango” – Durango, Mexico
Join us in demanding justice for crime reporter José Bladimir Antuna Garcían, 39, who was found murdered on 2 November 2009 after he was ambushed by five armed men in the Mexican city of Durango on his way to work. Attached to his body was a note reading, “This happened to me for giving information to the military and for writing too much.” Antuna had been investigating corruption and police crime and had been receiving threatening calls, some from the powerful drug cartel Los Zetas. He reported the threats to the state attorney general’s office; they were never followed up.
Take action and send a letter to the authorities demanding an immediate and open investigation into this case here
International Day to End Impunity is on 23 November. Until that date, we will reveal a story each day of a journalist, writer or free expression advocate who was killed in the line of duty.
27 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
Mexican reporter Manuel Gabriel Fonseca Hernández, who covers crime for El Mañanero de Acayucan, a newspaper in the south of Veracruz state, has been reported missing since 19 September. His family says that, on day he disappeared, he had gone out to conduct interviews for a story he was writing for his main newspaper.
