Two photographers were shot by unidentified gunmen in a brazen attack Thursday afternoon in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juárez, the New York-based press freedom group Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. One photographer died, and the other was injured.
Luis Carlos Santiago, 21, a photographer with the daily El Diario died around 2:45 p.m. after he and an unidentified colleague were shot by gunmen in the parking lot of a shopping mall in Ciudad Juárez, the local press said. Santiago was found dead in the vehicle parked in the mall in downtown Juárez. CPJ was unable to determine the other journalist's injuries.
"We are shocked by this brutal attack against our colleagues," said Carlos Lauría, CPJ's senior programme coordinator for the Americas. "In vast parts of Mexico, the media is under siege from criminal organisations. The Mexican federal government must immediately intervene in this crisis of national dimension. We urge President Felipe Calderón to make the protection of free expression a priority of his national agenda."
A CPJ report released September 8, "Silence or Death in Mexico's Press," reveals how drug-fueled crime, violence, and corruption have devastated the country's press corps and destroyed citizens' rights to freedom of expression and access to information.Eight journalists have been killed in Mexico in 2010, not including the murder today. CPJ is investigating to determine whether those deaths were related to the journalists' work.
A joint CPJ-Inter American Press Association delegation will meet with Calderón September 22 to discuss Mexico's grave press freedom crisis.
