Mexican publisher closes newspaper to protest colleague's unsolved murder
Oscar Cantu Murguia says he can no longer justify the risk of running a newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juarez knowing his reporters could be murdered just for doing their jobs.
That's why the Norte newspaper is shutting down after 27 years. The final edition hit stands on Sunday with the headline "Adios!" and a farewell letter from Murguia.
"You have no idea how difficult this decision can be. This morning, I feel grief, a sense of loss," the Norte founder and publisher told As It Happens host Carol Off.
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The decision comes after Murguia's friend and colleague, journalist Miroslava Breach, was shot and killed outside her home last month in the nearby city of Chihuahua.
Breach was a reporter for the national newspaper La Jornada and had also collaborated with Norte, often reporting on crime, politics and government corruption.
Nobody has claimed responsibility for Breach's murder, but the Guardian reports that a note left at the scene said: "For being a loudmouth."
"We have had in the past very critical circumstances surrounding the exercise of journalism, but never had we had anybody assassinated — and I am 67 years old. I've been 40 years in this journey," Murguia said.
A deadly country for journalists
At least 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992 for motives confirmed as related to their work, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
The New York-based media advocacy group says 50 more were slain during the same period for reasons that remain unclear.
The country also ranks sixth on the organization's impunity index, which tracks the unsolved murders of journalists.
"It's the attitude of our government that really concerned me in not bringing to justice the criminals who perpetrate those assassinations," Murguia said. "That is what I am up against."
Mexico also saw a spate of attacks on journalists in March. In addition to Breach, who was gunned down as she left her home on March 23, two other journalists were killed in Guerrero and Veracruz, both states that are hotspots of drug cartel violence.
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Another journalist was shot in Poza Rica, Veracruz, March 29, leaving him in critical condition. And an armed attack on a journalist in San Jose del Cabo, Baja California Sur, left his bodyguard dead.
All of this left Murguia's family in a state of panic, he said.
"My wife and my daughters spoke and said, 'Listen father, we are afraid of what could happen to you, what could happen to us,'" Murguia said.
"And they asked me, you know, 'You've been doing this for 40 years. Don't you think it's time to make us live without fear and without worrying that something will happen to you or to us?'"
Financial concerns also a factor
Cantu also cited financial concerns for the paper's closure, claiming that successive governments at both the state and federal levels have refused to pay their advertising debts.
In Mexico, government advertising is a major source of revenue for many news outlets, and media critics say reliance on that often leads to tame coverage and self-censorship.
The newspaper's website was still live as of Monday, but Cantu said it, too, will eventually be shut down.
He's hoping the paper's closure won't be seen as a victory for those who would silence the free press in Mexico.
"It's a way of protesting," he said. "I tried for 40 years a different way of doing things and nothing changed, so I hope that this gets the attention and gets the awareness of our communities."
With files from Associated Press