The killing of 12 journalists in Mexico this year and the failure to bring murderers to justice poses a serious problem for Mexican democracy argues Ángel García Català
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A journalist was kidnapped and killed in Durango state in northern Mexico on 2 November.
Bladimir Antuna García, a reporter for the police section of El Tiempo de Durango newspaper, was found dead on Monday according to the Durango attorney general’s office. Antuna García had been kidnapped by an armed group early Monday on his way to work in Durango city, the state capital.
On 26 May, following the murder of reporter Eliseo Barrón Hernández, someone called him and threatened that Antuna García would be next. Antuna García, whose work often focused on police matters, also told to the Center for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET) that he survived an assassination attempt on 26 April, when a gunman fired shots at him in front of his home.
Maria de los Ángeles González Hernández, columnist at the newspaper “El Político” has reportedly received a number of anonymous death threats by email, allegedly from local labour leaders in Xalapa, Veracruz, southern Mexico.
On 22 October, the journalist said she had received seven emails with threats against her and her family. According to Gonzalez, the threats could arise from a newspaper column in which concerns the triumph of independent workers in a contest to represent employees in negotiating the collective agreement of the sugar factory Ingenio El Potrero, managing to defeat the main union of the country, the Confederation of Workers of Mexico (CTM).
Mexico’s narco-trafficking gangs make it one of the most dangerous place in the world for journalists. This report from Mexico Reporter shows a security training course, jointly run by Article 19 and the Rory Peck Trust.