Demonstrators Across Mexico March to Demand Justice for Journalists Associated Press
go to original January 27, 2022

People and journalists join a national protest against the murder of journalist Lourdes Maldonado and freelance photojournalist Margarito Martínez, at the Mexico monument in Tijuana (Marco Ugarte / Associated Press)

Demonstrations were held this week in at least eight cities across Mexico to protest the killings of three journalists in the the last two weeks.

In the border city of Tijuana, two journalists have been killed in the space of a week. On Jan. 17, crime photographer Margarito Martínez was gunned down outside his home. And on Jan. 23, reporter Lourdes Maldonado López was found shot to death inside her car.

Dozens of journalists and supporters marched down a central boulevard in Tijuana in the evening, holding up signs with slogans like “Stop the Killing of Journalists, Not One More Death!”

Early Tuesday, news photographers laid their cameras on the ground outside Mexico City’s National Palace. The spot was decorated with flowers, small signs saying “Press, don’t shoot!” and photos of Maldonado, Martínez, and José Luis Gamboa, who died in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz on Jan. 10.

Inside the palace, President Andrés Manuel López Obrador faced journalists at his daily news briefing and promised again those responsible for the latest slaying would be punished, that there would not be impunity.

But precedent is not encouraging. López Obrador’s Interior Undersecretary Alejandro Encinas said recently that more than 90% of murders of journalists and rights defenders remain unresolved, despite a government system meant to protect them.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists puts the percentage at 95%, said its Mexico representative Jan-Albert Hootsen.

Read the rest at San Diego Union Tribune

Related: Fourth Journalist Killed in Mexico in a Month (Associated Press)

Related: A Call for Mexico to Investigate Murders of Journalists (NPR)

Related: Is Mexico Suddenly Too Dangerous? Not if You Avoid Drugs (Live and Let's Fly)

Related: Crime and Anti-Crime Policies in Mexico in 2022: A Bleak Outlook (Brookings)