Mexican journalist killed in Sonora, third to be slain in 2020

Jorge Armenta, director of media outlet Medios Obson, was reportedly under gov’t protection after receiving threats.

Journalists demonstrate against the murder of their colleague Maria Helena Ferral at Lerdo square in Xalapa, Veracruz state, Mexico in 2020.
Mexico is considered to be one of the world's most dangerous countries for news media [File: Hector Quintanar/AFP]

Journalist Jorge Armenta has been killed in an “armed attack” in Mexico’s northern Sonora state, according to authorities.

The office of Sonora’s attorney general said in a Twitter post that a municipal police officer was also killed in the attack in Ciudad Obregon, while a second officer was wounded.

Armenta, who was the director of digital media outlet Medios Obson, had received threats and was under government protection, the media watchdog group Reporters Without Borders (RSF) was quoted as saying to AFP news agency.

In a Twitter post, Sonora state Governor Claudia Pavlovich Arellano said she had “asked the prosecutor … to immediately initiate investigations to establish and find those responsible for the reprehensible attack”.

RSF regularly ranks Mexico alongside war-torn Syria and Afghanistan as the world’s most dangerous countries for news media.

Violence linked to drug trafficking and political corruption is rampant, and many murders go unpunished.

According to RSF, Armenta was the third journalist to be killed in 2020

The body of journalist Victor Fernando Alvarez was found on April 11 in the port of Acapulco, after he disappeared on April 2.

He was confirmed as the second journalist to be murdered in Mexico this year following Maria Elena Ferral, who was shot dead by two assailants on motorbikes when getting into her car in the eastern state of Veracruz in March.

In 2019, 10 journalists were killed in Mexico, according to an RSF count.

Source: Al Jazeera, News Agencies