Eighth journalist murdered in Mexico this year

Another journalist has been shot to death in Mexico, the eighth murdered so far this year in an unprecedented spate of killings that has made Mexico the most dangerous place in the world for the press.

Prosecutors in the western state of Michoacan said reporter Armando Linares, the director of news outlet Monitor Michoacan, was shot to death at a private home in the town of Zitacuaro on Tuesday.

There was no immediate information on a possible motive in the killing, which came six weeks after the slaying of Roberto Toledo, a journalist from the same news outlet, on January 31.

At the time of Toledo's death, Linares said he had received several death threats after enrolling in a government journalist protection program.

Asked who he thought was behind the threats, Linares said “they pass themselves off as an armed group, they pass themselves off as a criminal gang. We can't verify whether it is true or not that they are this armed gang.”

READ MORE: Mexicans protest killings of journalists

Impunity in journalist killings runs above 90%

Zitacuaro, the scene of both Linares and Toledo's murders, is one of the closest towns to the monarch butterfly wintering grounds in the mountains west of Mexico City. The area has been plagued by illegal logging and drug gangs.

“We wrote a lot about illegal logging and also a lot of issues like corruption in the municipal government,” Linares had said in early February.

Drug cartels in Mexico often make money by protecting illegal logging, or extorting protection payments from avocado growers. They often target journalists, seeking to intimidate them and manipulate their coverage.

Local politicians and government officials are also frequently linked to murders, according to the government, which has acknowledged that impunity in those killings runs above 90%.

Reporters and photographers have been murdered this year in Mexico at the rate of almost one a week, despite claims from the government that the situation is under control.

In early March, gunmen killed Juan Carlos Muniz, who covered crime for the online news site Testigo Minero in the state of Zacatecas.

Jorge Camero, the director of an online news site who was until recently a municipal worker in the northern state of Sonora, was killed in late February.

Mexican President Andrés Manuel Lopez Obrador has reacted angrily to worldwide criticism of the killings, lashing out at US Secretary of State Antony Blinken for being misinformed and accusing the European Parliament of having a “colonialist mentality.”

Press groups say Lopez Obrador’s daily criticisms of journalists, whom he calls “conservatives” and “mercenaries,” make them more vulnerable to violence.

READ MORE: Fifth journalist killed in Mexico this year in latest attack on media