Mexican journalist killed in tourist town of Acapulco

A Mexican journalist was shot dead by assailants on Saturday in a store parking lot in the southern tourist town of Acapulco, stated the regional authorities. This is the second killing of a journalist that has taken place in the country within a week.

Prosecutors stated that an investigation has been initiated over homicide with a firearm in the killing of Nelson Matus. The incident took place days after another journalist was killed in a country, which is considered among the most dangerous places for members of the press in the world.

Director of news outlet Lo Real de Guerrero Matus was shot when he was getting inside his car which was parked in a thrift shop parking lot.

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In a statement, the Guerrero state prosecutor's office said that it "reiterates its commitment to exhaust every line of investigation" into his death.

Matus had been working as a journalist for 15 years, and had specialised in covering violence, said Mexico delegate for press freedom organisation Reporters Without Borders Balbina Flores, while speaking to AFP.

Since the year 2000, more than 150 journalists have been murdered in Mexico, according to the group. This week, the officials stated that they found the body of fellow journalist Luis Martin Sanchez "with signs of violence," after he had been reported missing.

The dead body of journalist Luis Martin Sanchez, who worked as a correspondent for La Jornada newspaper, was discovered this week "with signs of violence," officials said after it was reported that he is missing.

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Mexico - a dangerous country for journalists

A leftist newspaper founded in Mexico City in 1985, La Jornada, has already lost two of its most famous correspondents. Miroslava Breach was murdered in Chihuahua in March 2017, and Javier Valdez, who also worked as a contributor for AFP, was killed in Sinaloa in May of the same year.

Sanchez was among the three active or former journalists who were abducted in the western state of Nayarit, stated the prosecutor's office in a statement.

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His dead body was discovered in a village near the state capital Tepic. Two cardboard messages were found pinned to his chest, stated the officials, without clearly stating what the messages said.

Earlier this month, another journalist Osiris Maldonado de la Paz was abducted from his home in the town of Xalisco, while a third journalist who was kidnapped, was later found alive.

As per the government, the killings of 13 journalists were reported in 2022 in Mexico. The exact circumstances of most of those killings remain unsolved.

(With inputs from agencies)

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