(RSF/IFEX) - Alfonso Teja, television station TV Azteca's news director in the city of Monterrey in the northern state of Nuevo León announced on 10 July 2007 that he had "given up hope" that two employees who went missing on 10 May, reporter Gamaliel López and cameraman Gerardo Paredes, will be found alive.
"The state attorney general's office has told us the anti-kidnapping unit that was investigating their disappearance has abandoned the case," Agence France-Presse quoted him as saying. "We have received no message from the journalists and the police have told us they have no clue as to where they might be."
Asked if he thought organised crime was behind their abduction, Teja acknowledged that López had "ventured into sensitive territory."
RSF urges the authorities to continue the investigation.
