Death Toll for Mexican Journalists Stands at 9 in the First Six Months of 2016 Heloisa Aruth Sturm and Teresa Mioli - Journalism in the Americas
go to original July 6, 2016

Mexican photojournalists hold pictures of their murdered colleague Ruben Espinosa during a demonstration in Mexico City last summer.(Yuri Cortez/Agence France-Presse)

Twenty-four journalists were killed or died under unclear circumstances in Latin America in the first six months of 2016. Eight of these deaths were recorded just in the month of June.

More than half of the deaths registered this year occurred in only two countries: Mexico (9) and Guatemala (5). Homicides and deaths were also reported in Honduras (3), El Salvador (3), Brazil (2) and Venezuela (2). Perpetrators were identified in only five cases.

Ten of the 24 professionals were covering cases of corruption, organized crime and local administration. At least four of them reported having been threatened.

Below, see an interactive map and learn more about the journalists who have died in Latin America so far this year.

The three most recent deaths took place within the span of a week in Mexico when two reporters were shot dead and a radio host was hit by a police car. The last case is under investigation and has not been labeled a homicide by officials.

Press freedom organizations have warned of increased violence against journalists in Mexico and also criticized the attempts of local authorities to criminalize some of the murdered journalists, as in the case of Zamira Esther Bautista and Anabel Flores Salazar, according to the Inter American Press Association and Article 19 Mexico. The number of murders of journalists in that country now exceeds the amount recorded during all of 2015.

Click the arrows on the interactive map below to scroll through the list of journalists who have died in Latin America so far this year.



Read the rest at Journalism in the Americas

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