Mexico journalist assassinated, third since January

A Mexican journalist, Jorge Armenta, was assassinated Saturday May 16 in the north of the country, as well as a municipal police, bringing to three the number of journalists killed in Mexico since the beginning of the year.

The journalist, director of Medios Obson, an online media outlet, was the victim of an armed attack in Ciduad Obregon (north) in which a police officer was also killed and another injured, prosecutors said on Twitter local.

Jorge Armenta had received threats and was benefiting from a protection program for threatened persons, human rights defenders and journalists, told AFP the representative in Mexico of Journalists without Borders, an NGO which figures at three the number of journalists murdered since January in this country, one of the most violent on the planet.

In April, a missing journalist was found dead in Acapulco (southwest), and in late March, a reporter was killed in the eastern state of Veracruz.

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists. More than a hundred of them have been murdered since 2000, including 10 in 2019, according to Reporters Without Borders.