(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 1 March 2001 RSF press release: Journalist killed in state bordering on the United States In a letter to Víctor Emilio Anchondo Paredes, interim governor of Chihuahua state (in northern Mexico), Reporters sans frontières (RSF,www.rsf.fr) expressed its concern over the assassination of José Luis Ortega Mata, journalist for the […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 1 March 2001 RSF press release:
Journalist killed in state bordering on the United States
In a letter to Víctor Emilio Anchondo Paredes, interim governor of Chihuahua state (in northern Mexico), Reporters sans frontières (RSF,www.rsf.fr) expressed its concern over the assassination of José Luis Ortega Mata, journalist for the weekly Semanario de Ojinaga. The organisation urged authorities “to do all they can so that the motives behind the assassination are established and the responsible parties are punished”. “Mexican northern states, bordering on the United States, are a particularly dangerous region for the exercise of journalism,” stated Robert Ménard, RSF’s secretary-general. At least two other journalists have been killed in Chihuahua state as a result of their profession since 1991.
According to the information collected by RSF, on 19 February 2001, José Luis Ortega Mata, publication director of the weekly Semanario de Ojinaga, was shot twice in the head and killed. Police was able to draw up a sketch of the two assassins. The weekly, which is published in Ojinaga, a city in Chihuahua state, is circulated in the state’s northern region and on the other side of the border, in the cities of Odessa and Milan in Texas. In the 15 February edition of the weekly, the journalist published information on drug trafficking in the region. So far, investigators have not dismissed the possibility that the murder was a crime of passion. A journalist for fifteen years, José Luis Ortega Mata was previously editor of the weekly Prensa Libre. A few weeks ago, he was elected president of the Ojinaga Photographers and Cameramen Association (Asociacion de Fotografos y Camarografos de Ojinaga).
At least two other journalists have been killed for their journalistic work in Chihuahua state since 1991. Víctor Manuel Oropeza, columnist for the daily Diario de Juárez, was assassinated on 4 July 1991. Jessica Elizalde de Leon, reporter for Radio Centro and FM 106, was shot twice in the head and assassinated in Ciudad Juárez on 15 March 1993.
