Carlos Ortega Samper

Top Developments• Amid threats and attacks, self-censorship becomes more pervasive.• Congress stalls on reforms to combat violence against the press. Key Statistic 9: Journalists missing since 2005. Most had covered crime and corruption. The deepening influence of organized crime and the government’s inability to curb worsening violence left the news media wide open to attack.…

New York, November 3, 2009—Crime reporter Bladimir Antuna García was found murdered Monday night, according local news reports, after reportedly being abducted from a street in the Mexican city of Durango that morning. The Committee to Protect Journalists called on Mexican authorities to show their commitment to press freedom and the protection of Mexican journalists…

Santa María El Oro Mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera denied any connection to Sunday’s murder of local journalist Carlos Ortega Samper in the northern Durango state, according to Mexican press reports. 

New York, May 5, 2009–A Mexican journalist who was critical of local authorities in the northern state of Durango was fatally shot by unidentified assailants on Sunday. In a piece published a day before the killing, the reporter wrote that he had been threatened by local government officials. The Committee to Protect Journalists today called…