| | |  News Around the Republic of Mexico | February 2009 
Mexican Media Protest Crime Photographer's Killing
 Natalia Parra - Associated Press
go to original
| | Riot police stand guard as farmers from all over the country protest against the rising price of diesel in front of Mexico's Agriculture Ministry in Mexico City, February 16, 2009. (Reuters/Henry Romero) | |
Acapulco, Mexico — Mexican journalists demanded an investigation Monday into the death of a crime photographer gunned down while riding his motorcycle to an assignment.
Photographer Jean Paul Ibarra and reporter Yenny Marchan were on their way to the morgue in the southern city of Iguala when gunmen on another motorcycle came alongside and opened fire, according to the Guerrero state police.
Marchan received two bullet wounds but survived; Ibarra was killed.
Ibarra, 33, covered crime for the newspaper El Correo de Iguala, while Marchan worked for the paper Diaro 21. Police named no suspects or possible motive for the attack.
The National Union of Reporters sent a letter to Guerrero state Gov. Zeferino Torreblanca urging "an exhaustive investigation" into Friday's attack. The union also demanded "that the state government guarantee the security of reporters, especially those that cover crime."
The Paris-based advocacy group Reporters Without Borders deplored the shooting as "another example of the environment of extreme violence in some parts of the country."
As crime and drug violence surges, Mexico has become one of the deadliest places in the world to be a journalist. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says at least 24 reporters have been killed because of their work since 2000.
Drug violence claimed more than 6,000 lives overall last year in Mexico.
Ibarra's killing came on the eve of a particular violent weekend in Mexico.
On Saturday night, gunmen burst into a restaurant in western Mexico, killing seven people and wounding five. The Jalisco state police said the attackers may have been targeting rival drug gang members, noting that one of the dead was a suspected marijuana dealer.
However, the wounded included three children, ages 14, 11 and 2.
In southern Tabasco state Saturday, gunmen killed a state police officer and 10 members of his family, including five children. And in Mexico City, authorities found the bodies of two decapitated women. |
|
| |
Vallarta Weddings
Tell a Friend
Site Map
Print this Page
Email Us