Journalist killed in southern Mexico, 3rd so far in 2010

Journalist killed in Mexico, 3rd this year

ACAPULCO, Mexico — Gunmen have slain a Mexican journalist — the third such killing so far this year — and a top prosecutor said Tuesday there are few clues.

Albertano Guinto, the acting attorney general in the Pacific coast state of Guerrero, said it was not yet clear if the death of Jorge Ochoa Martinez was linked to his work as director of El Sol de la Costa, a small newspaper that covers mostly local politics and community issues southeast of Acapulco.

Ochoa Martinez was shot in the face as he left a food stand in the town of Ayutla on Friday.

Two other Mexican journalists were killed in early January, and 12 reporters were killed in Mexico during 2009.

The governmental National Human Rights Commission said that 60 journalists have been killed since 2000, with eight others kidnapped or vanished.

“In Mexico, increasing numbers of journalists are the victims of threats, intimidation, persecution attacks and kidnappings in the course of performing their work,” the commission said in a statement Monday.

The Guerrero section of the National Union of Reporters said six of those killings since 2000 have been in that state, where drug gangs, rural disputes and illegal logging gangs are active.

The union said none of those responsible for the killings has been punished, and called on federal and local authorities to investigate the latest case.

Several international media watchdog groups have named Mexico the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists.