IFJ Condemns Murders of Journalists in Mexico

July 19, 2010

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today said impunity which is fueling violence against journalists has reached intolerable levels in Mexico after two more journalists were murdered in a single day last week, bringing to 12 the number of media targeted killings in 2010.

According to reports, Marco Aurelio Martinez, 45, director of news programme "Informativo 800" of Radio La Tremenda of Montemorelos, municiple of Nuevo Leon, was abducted by unidentified men and his body found on Saturday 10 July abandoned on a local track. He had been shot in the head.

The same day, Guillermo Trejo Alcaraz, 24, was murdered in the state of Chihuahua by a group of hit men. Alcazar who used to work as a graphic reporter was the director of the Web Television of the State Commission of Human Rights.

"We demand a prompt and effective action, in order to end the killings of journalists in Mexico," said Celso Schroeder, President of the Federation of Journalists of Latin America and the Caribbean (FEPALC), the regional branch of IFJ: "This mindless violence is a scandal which must be stopped as soon as possible".

The IFJ supports the FEPALC call for Government's action and says the journalists' community is desperate to see firm action by the authorities to end the terror of gangsters who have claimed twelve lives of its members in this year alone.

The other Mexican journalists killed since the start of the year were Jorge Ochoa, Valentín Valdes Espinoza, José Luis Romero, Jorge Rabago, Evaristo Solís, Enrique Villicaña Palomares and María Isabella Cordero, Juan Francisco Rodriguez Ríos and his wife María Elvira Hernandez Galeana, also a communicator, and Hugo Olivera.


For more information contact:
International Federation of Journalists
Phone: + 58 212 7931996
Website: www.ifj.org