Mexican forensic experts inspect journalist Miroslava Breach's vehicle after she was killed last month. Breach was a reporter at the Norte newspaper that is closing because of repeated attacks against journalists. (El Diario Chihuahua/ HANDOUT / EPA) |
In Mexico, A newspaper is closing down because
the country has become too dangerous for journalists, according to its owner.
In an editorial published Sunday on the front
page of the Norte newspaper in the border city of Juarez, the owner Oscar Cantu
Murguia said: “a string of deadly assaults on journalists is preventing us from
continuing freely with our work.”
“Dear reader, I am writing to inform you that I
have taken the decision to close because, among other things, there are no
guarantees or the security to exercise critical, counterweight journalism,” he
wrote.
According to Los Angeles times, Cantu said it was
the March 23 killing of Miroslava Breach, one of the five Mexican
journalists targeted by violence last month that prompted him to close it.
Breach, who covered drug cartels and corruption
stories for Norte, along with the much bigger La Jornada newspaper, was gunned
down outside her home in the city of Chihuahua. A sign left at the crime scene
said “tattletale.”
On March 19, columnist Ricardo Monlui, who worked
for El Sol de Cordoba, was shot twice as he left a restaurant with his wife and
son in the Gulf Coast state of Veracruz.
On March 2, Cecilio Pineda Birto, a freelancer
and the founder of La Voz de Tierra Caliente, was shot and killed at a car wash
in Guerrero state.
Two other journalists were wounded last month in
attacks believed to have been carried out in retaliation for their work.
In his final note to readers, Cantu complained
about a culture of impunity in Mexico, he said that there have been no arrests
in the killing of Breach.
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