Unknown gunmen shot and killed a Mexican journalist in the coastal state of Guerrero Tuesday. The murder is the third of its kind in August and the 16th in 2022. Press freedom organizations now call the current year the deadliest for news workers in Mexico.
On Tuesday afternoon, two gunmen shot and killed Fredid Roman Roman in Chilpancingo, the Guerrero Attorney General’s Office revealed. Roman was a long-time journalist who ran the weekly publication La Realidad.
The murder took place when two gunmen riding on a motorcycle pulled up to Roman as he was getting into his red Mazda sedan.
Press freedom organizations consider Mexico to be one of the deadliest countries for journalists. Activists are also calling 2022 the deadliest on record. Organizations claim that most crimes against journalists go unpunished in Mexico.
Despite the high number of murdered journalists this year, Mexico’s President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador continues to claim that impunity has ended under his administration.
The murder is the 16th of its kind documented by Breitbart Texas in 2022.
Mexican Media Workers Killed in 2022:
— January 10: unknown individuals stabbed Jose Luis Gamboa in Veracruz of Inforegio.
— January 17: a man shot and killed renowned international photojournalist Margarito Martinez at his home in Tijuana.
–January 23, gunmen shot and killed Lourdes Maldonado outside her home in Tijuana, Baja California. She previously asked President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador for physical protection.
–January 31, gunmen shot and killed 59-year-old Roberto Toledo in Zitacuaro, Michoacan from Monitor Michoacan.
–February 10: gunmen shot and killed Heber Lopez Vasquez inside his recording studio in Salinas Cruz, Oaxaca.
–February 20: TV presenter Michel Simon died at the hands of men who kidnapped and murdered her. Authorities found her body three days later, wrapped in bedsheets.
–February 25: gunmen shot and killed Jorge Luis “El Choche” Camero, the director of the news outlet El Informativo in Empalme, Sonora.
–March 4: gunmen shot and killed Juan Carlos Muniz in Fresnillo, Zacatecas. He was an online journalist for Multimedios Testigo Minero.
–March 15: gunmen shot and killed Armando Linares Lopez at his home in Zitacuaro, Michoacan. He was a journalist for the Monitor Michoacan.
–May 6: gunmen kidnapped and killed Luis Enrique Ramirez in Culiacan, Sinaloa. He founded Fuentes Fidedignas and previously worked for El Universal, Jornada, Debate, and Milenio.
–May 9: gunmen shot and killed Yesenia Mollinedo Falcónido, a reporter for El Veraz and her camerawoman Sheila Johana García Olivera in Cosoleacaque, Veracruz.
–June 29: gunmen shot and killed Antonio De la Cruz, a long-time journalist with El Expreso in Ciudad Victoria. Antonio’s daughter, Cynthia De La Cruz, died days later as a result of the injuries sustained in the attack.
–August 3: gunmen shot and killed Ernesto Mendez in San Luis de la Paz, Guanajuato. He was the director of a local outlet called La Voz.
–August 16: authorities in San Luis Rio Colorado discovered the body of Juan Arjon Lopez, an online journalist. Arjón Lopez ran a Facebook-based outlet called A Que Le Temes.