According to local media, hitmen fired at Mexican journalist Nelson Matus, who had 15 years of experience and specialized in covering information on violence for the Guerrero media outlet Lo Real.
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Mexican journalist Nelson Matus was shot to death this Saturday in the parking lot of a store in Acapulco, a tourist port and important city on the Mexican Pacific coast. He is the second journalist murdered in a week in Mexico.
Matus was director of the news portal The Real of Guerrero. He was shot as he was getting into his car. He had 15 years of experience as a journalist and specialized in covering information on violence, Balbina Flores, a delegate in Mexico from the press freedom organization Reporters Without Borders, told AFP.
“Nelson’s tragic murder reflects the challenges we face. It reminds us that by speaking up, we make ourselves targets of those who seek to hide the truth. Although these attacks frighten us, we cannot allow them to paralyze us, because silence is not a option,” wrote Jorge Lozano, Matus’s colleague, on his Facebook account.
“Fear is a constant reality, knowing that any one of us could be the next victim. However, instead of letting ourselves be beaten, we must unite and move on ”, she highlighted.
The communication outlet he directed is one of the portals with the greatest following in this region of the country. Nelson Matus had already suffered attacks on previous occasions.
Just five days ago, on July 8, the body of Luis Martín Sánchez, correspondent for the newspaper the day in Nayarit, northwest of Mexico, he was found with signs of violence after being reported missing.
With Martín Sánchez and Matus, the number of journalists murdered so far in 2023 in Mexico, considered one of the most dangerous countries in the world for communicators, adds up to 8.
According to the government, in 2022 there were 13 homicides of reporters and the authorities are investigating whether these events were related to the profession of the victims. The majority of communicator crimes continue in impunity.
with AFP
