Mexico: Newspaper closes down after third journalist killed in a month

Source – The Guardian

When journalist Miroslava Breach was shot dead while taking one of her children home from school, in the city of Chihuahua, she was the third journalist to be killed in a month.  Breach was a reporter for the national newspaper La Jornada and had also collaborated with local newspaper, Norte.

Now Oscar Cantu Murguia, the editor of Norte, has informed readers of his decision to shut down the newspaper in a farewell letter titled “Adios!” that was published on the paper’s front page and online.

Announcing the decision to close the paper, Cantu wrote: “On this day, esteemed reader, I address you to report that I have made the decision to close this newspaper due to the fact that, among other things, there are neither the guarantees nor the security to exercise critical, counterbalanced journalism.”

“In these 27 years … we fought against the tide, receiving attacks and punishments from individuals and governments for having exposed their bad practices and corrupt acts that only played to the detriment of our city and the people who live in it.”

“Everything in life has a beginning and an end, a price to pay,” he went on. “And if this is life, I am not prepared for any more of my collaborators to pay it, nor with my own person.”

He vowed to continue “fighting from other trenches, always contributing and being loyal to my ideals and my city.”