Ciro Gomez Leyva says he was saved by his armoured automobile after gunmen shot at him close to his residence in Mexico Metropolis.
A distinguished Mexican radio and tv reporter says two gunmen tried to kill him close to his residence in Mexico Metropolis, renewing issues for the security of journalists within the Central American nation.
Ciro Gomez Leyva, certainly one of Mexico’s best-known journalists, stated in a social media publish early on Friday that the assault occurred shortly earlier than midnight.
“200 metres [650 feet] from my home, two individuals on a bike shot at me, apparently with the clear intention of killing me,” Gomez Leyva wrote. “The armour of my truck that I used to be driving saved me, and I've reported the matter to the authorities.”
He shared images of the affect of a number of bullets on his automobile. The bullets seem to have did not penetrate the window of his automobile.
Mexico has seen an uptick of lethal violence in opposition to media professionals this 12 months. In response to the Committee to Defend Journalists (CPJ), a US-based watchdog, 13 journalists have been killed within the nation to this point in 2022, together with three who have been targetted in “retaliation for his or her reporting”.
Mexico additionally leads the world within the variety of lacking journalists – 15 circumstances since 2005, the committee stated this 12 months.
Mexico is now the deadliest nation for reporters exterior warfare zones. In its year-end report, Reporters With out Borders (RSF) stated 20 p.c of journalists killed worldwide have been slain in Mexico. That, together with killings in Haiti and Brazil, helped make the Americas the “world’s most harmful area for media” in 2022, based on the report.
The concentrating on of journalists in Mexico has usually been blamed on organised crime, however press freedom advocates have criticised authorities and the nation’s weak authorized system for failing to adequately deal with the problem.
“Whereas investigating assaults on journalists, CPJ has discovered that authorities are sometimes sluggish to reply, fail to use finest practices to proof gathering, and seem to prioritize presenting suspects as quickly as doable, slightly than conducting an intensive investigation,” the group stated in a assertion in August.
“Furthermore, it's generally tough to find out whether or not official investigations are reliable, as authorities allegedly collude with legal gangs or are concerned within the assaults themselves,” it stated.
The assault on Gomez Leyva sparked condemnations throughout Mexico, together with from President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, who usually verbally clashes with the reporter.
“He's a journalist, a human being, however what's extra, he's a frontrunner of public opinion, and accidents to an individual like Ciro creates quite a lot of political instability,” Lopez Obrador stated.
“We've got variations,” the president admitted. “They're infamous and public. We're going to proceed to have them, however it's fully reprehensible for anybody to be attacked.”
Gomez Leyva stated he had no thought of who was behind the assault.
He stated he had solely acquired threats 5 years in the past after publishing a narrative about extortion at a Mexico Metropolis jail. Following that 2017 risk, the media firm he works for insisted he use a bullet-resistant Jeep Cherokee.
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