Roberto Toledo, a journalist was killed in the Mexican city of Zitacuaro. The event is the fourth in just under a month.
Another journalist killed in Mexico
According to a report by Monitor Michoacán, an online news outlet in Mexico, a journalist Roberto Toledo was shot to death in Mexico. According to Armando Linares, the director of the site, three assailants shot Toledo in Zitacuro. The city is located in Mexico’s western part, in the state of Michoacan. “For exposing corrupt administrations and corrupt officials and politicians, today that led to the death of one of our colleagues. Three people came up to him and shot him,” reported Linares.
“The Monitor Michoacán team has suffered weeks, months of death threats. We know where all of this comes from,” he added. However, Linares did not identify the suspect. According to Jan-Albert Hootsen, a representative of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Toledo was a camera operator and video editor. “We are classifying him as a media worker or press worker,” said Hootsen. “Toledo was filming a new video column by Monitor Michoacan’s deputy director, Joel Vera, a local lawyer, at Vera’s office when the gunmen arrived,” revealed the agency.
More on the unpresidented deaths
The National Academy of Radio and Television Journalists also stated that the killings of the journalists denounced death threats and aggression connected to their work. According to the academy, Toldeo had registered in the federal government’s “el mechanismo”. The mechanism is a protection system for journalists and human rights defenders. However, they did not elaborate on the type of protection given to Toledo. Generally, it ranges from carrying a panic button for alerting the authorities to installing surveillance cameras or having bodyguards.
“We will work together with the state and municipal governments to clear up the case. And, we will not allow impunity. We defend freedom of expression and the right to information,” tweeted Jesús Ramírez. Ramírez is the spokesperson for Andrés Manuel López Obrador, the President of Mexico. He added that the administration condemned the killing. According to the government’s data, over 50 journalists in Mexico lost their lives since December 2018. On January 17, Margarito Martínez, a crime photographer, gunned right outside his house. Within a week, reporter Lourdes Maldonado López was found dead. He was shot inside his car. Additionally, this unprecedented rate of killings is putting reporters across the nation on edge.