Mexico
Journalist gunned down on World Press Freedom DayPosted May 14 2009
Journalist Carlos Ortega Melo Samper was killed in a fatal shooting outside his home in Santa Maria del Oro, a town in the northern state of Durango, Mexico, on World Press Freedom Day, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) reports.
According to RSF, municipal officials were known to have been angered by Ortega’s columns for the Tiempo de Durango newspaper in recent months. Ortega, who was also a lawyer, criticized the local authorities about the poor hygiene in the municipal abattoir in a column on Apr. 28. It led to a serious altercation the next day with Mayor Martín Silvestre Herrera and municipal official Juan Manuel Calderón Guzmán. Ortega also accused Guzmán of defrauding the Durango Union of Livestock Breeders, RSF reports.
The Tiempo de Durango’s management told RSF that Ortega was intercepted by four men in two vehicles as he was about to enter his home. They tried to kidnap him and, when he resisted, they shot him twice.
More information
- Reporters Without Borders