2 December 2009
Journalist's murder linked to reporting on environment
A Mexican journalist was found dead in his home in Jalisco State on 24 November; his hands tied with a cable, his body wrapped in a blanket, reports Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and the International Press Institute (IPI).
José Galindo Robles, the head of Radio Universidad de Guadalajara at Ciudad Guzmán, was an award-winning journalist specialising in covering environmental issues, report IFEX members. In 2004 he received the National Prize for Environmental Journalism for his reporting on private firms dumping toxic waste into the River Santiago.
"With a murder motive yet to be established, we urge the authorities to consider the possibility that the crime was connected to his work. He was sometimes very outspoken and he was committed to defending human rights and the environment," said RSF.
Worldwide, environmental journalists are being increasingly targeted, reports RSF. The work of investigative journalists threatens organised crime groups and other intermediaries who profit from the destruction of the environment.
"In no other country are journalists more frequently singled out and murdered for carrying out their work than in Mexico," said IPI.
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