Professor and freelance journalist Carlos Domínguez was killed on January 13 in Nuevo Laredo, Tamaulipas state.
This article was originally published on sipiapa.org on 15 January 2018.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed its condemnation of the murder in Mexico of journalist Carlos Domínguez and urged the government to investigate, identify those responsible and apply the corresponding punishments.
Mexican news media reported that Domínguez, a professor and freelance journalist, was killed on Saturday afternoon (January 13) in Nuevo Laredo city, Tamaulipas state. He was attacked as he was traveling in his car with his daughter.
IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Peruvian newspaper La República, said, “We know that violence has terrible consequences for both the journalist’s family and his colleagues. We send our solidarity to all those affected by this crime and we call on the government to comply with its responsibility to investigate, identify the perpetrators and masterminds responsible for the crime and apply the corresponding punishments to those involved.”
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Roberto Rock, editor of the Mexican portal La Silla Rota, stressed that “while the murder of journalists is an extreme form of censorship, the lack of justice and punishment even more encourages other acts of violence, leads to self-censorship as a means of defense and inhibits the exercise of freedom of expression.”
Although the motive for the murder is unknown the authorities have not ruled out that it could be related to his work as a journalist. He wrote a political column that circulated on social media. He also worked until 2016 at El Diario de Nuevo Laredo newspaper.
Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission (CNDH) asked the government to take precautionary measures with the aim of protecting family members of the journalist. Domínguez was the first reporter to be murdered this year in Mexico. According to data compiled by the IAPA 11 members of the press were murdered in Mexico last year.
