MEXICO CITY: A Mexican television reporter was shot dead Wednesday in the resort city of Cancun, becoming the eighth journalist to be killed this year in a country notoriously dangerous for the media.
Javier Enrique Rodriguez Valladares worked as a cameraman and reporter for Canal 10. The station said his family had confirmed his death.
The government of Quintana Roo state, which includes Cancun, said another man was also shot dead with him, reportedly while the pair were walking down a street in the city center.
Canal 10 said Rodriguez Valladares was mainly a cameraman but also did interviews and features on political issues.
The state government said there was no immediate indication the murder was related to his work but that all avenues of investigation remained open.
Rodriguez Valladares is the third journalist to meet a violent death in Quintana Roo in the past two months.
Ruben Pat, editor-in-chief of the Playa News weekly, was shot dead outside a bar in Playa del Carmen in July, not far from the tourist hotspot.
And on June 29, Jose Guadalupe Chan was shot dead in a Mayan indigenous village in the south of Quintana Roo. He was also working for Playa News as a reporter.
Last year 11 journalists were killed in Mexico which has been ravaged by drug-related violence.
According to various freedom of speech organizations, more than 100 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 2000. The vast majority of those crimes have gone unpunished.
Similar cases across the world