Journalists in Veracruz State Capital March Against Attacks on Press Rodrigo Soberanes, Galia Garcia Palafox - Associated Press
go to original April 29, 2013

Mexico no longer has a free press because of its drug war, according to a 2011 report by Freedom House, a US-based watchdog. (AlJazeeraEnglish)

XALAPA, Mexico — Officials in Veracruz state say they know who killed Regina Martinez. The muckraking reporter, found beaten and suffocated in her house, was just the victim of a robbery, according to prosecutors and a local court.

But many of her colleagues don't believe it. The man convicted of the crime was tortured into a confession, they allege. And the magazine she works for says state officials discussed sending police across the country in an attempt to hunt down and seize another reporter who raised questions about the death, which is one of a growing list of killings that have put Mexico among the most dangerous places in the world to be a journalist.

Some 400 people gathered Sunday in the center of Veracruz's state capital, Xalapa, for a march to demand justice in the Martinez case and an end to attacks on the press. Many held up posters suggesting the government had a hand in the case, some describing it as "a state killing."

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists said in a February report that 12 Mexican journalists went missing in 2006-2012 and 14 were killed because of their work. Mexico's federal Human Rights Commission lists 81 journalists killed since 2000.

Read the rest at The Huffington Post

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