The owner of a daily newspaper in the north of Mexico has decided to shut down his publication, saying balanced journalism can no longer be guaranteed amid current security conditions.
With a front-page headline that simply read, “Adios,” Norte, a daily published in Ciudad Juarez, printed its final edition Sunday, April 2.
The decision came less than two weeks after Miraslova Breach, a journalist who reported on government corruption and organized crime for Norte and La Jornada, was killed in her car in an early morning slaying. A note left by the assassin beside her dying body referred to her as “a loudmouth.”
In a parting editorial in Sunday’s edition, Norte owner Oscar Cantú Murguía said he could not guarantee the safety of his reporters any longer, and that he wasn’t prepared to “pay the price of one more death.
“I don’t want another of our collaborators to go through the same experience as Miroslava, an extraordinary journalist and dedicated professional who left two sons.”
Cantu called the closure of his newspaper “a silent act of protest.”
No arrests have yet been made in the murders of three Mexican journalists reported in March.
The slaying of Breach, wrote Cantu, “made me reflect on the adverse conditions under which journalists have to work today. The high risk is the reason (for closing).”
Although Norte had experienced some financial problems of late, Cantú insisted that the closure of the newspaper was only because of the security situation. In his editorial, however, he did blame “three levels of government” for failing to “pay their debts for contracted services.”
Norte is one of six daily newspapers in Ciudad Juarez, with a circulation of around 30,000.