Amado Ramírez Dillane, 50, Acapulco-based correspondent for Mexico’s Televisa network and host of the daily news program “Al Tanto” on local Radiorama, was shot to death near the city’s main square April 6. He had apparently just left Radiorama’s studio when he was gunned down. According to Misael Habana de los Santos, Ramírez’s co-host at Radiorama, the journalist had received several death threats on his cellular phone prior. Habana wrote in the national daily La Jornada that Ramírez had not paid attention to the threats, and refused to inform local police.
The Comittee to Protect Journalists reports that at least six journalists have been murdered in direct reprisal for their work since 2000 in Mexico, while the slayings of 11 other journalists, including Ramírez, are under investigation to determine if the killings were work-related. Three journalists have also disappeared since 2005; two of them were covering crime stories. The Mexican Prosecutor General’s office has recorded 678 organized crime-related murders in 2007 alone, according to press reports. (CPJ, April 9)
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