The killings of two journalists in one week in Mexico has renewed calls for the country’s media community to be given better protection.

The most recent attack took place Saturday in Acapulco, Guerrero state, when Nelson Matus, the director of news website Lo Real de Guerrero, was fatally shot outside a store.

The previous Saturday, the body of missing journalist Luis Martín Sanchez was found in Tepic, the capital of Nayarit state.

The prosecutor’s office said the body of Sanchez, who worked for the national newspaper La Jornada in the coastal state of Nayarit, showed “signs of violence” and that two handwritten signs were left with the body.

Authorities did not say what was written on the signs.

Mexico is the deadliest country for journalists outside of a war zone, with 13 killed for their work in 2022 and five slain so far this year, according to media organizations.

Reporters who cover corruption and crime are most at risk of kidnap, attack or death.

The country has a protection mechanism and a special prosecutor to investigate attacks on media. But reporters say those measures don’t always go far enough.

In Matus’ case, Guerrero authorities say they are committed to investigating the killing. But with justice often elusive, journalists in Acapulco are demanding action.

“Authorities [must] find those responsible for this murder, and the other [and] end impunity,” said Jacob Morales, a reporter in the city.

A second journalist, Celeste Hernández, echoed that, telling VOA, “What’s important is that there’s an investigation, that it is followed up, and that it is resolved — not just that it remains as one more case.”

The National Press Club in Washington said the attack on Matus was the third known attempt on the journalist’s life.

“We are exceedingly concerned at what is happening to journalists in Mexico who are simply doing their very important jobs to investigate and inform citizens,” the club’s president, Eileen O’Reilly, and Gil Klein, president of the National Press Club Journalism Institute, said in a joint statement.

The club called on authorities “to redouble their efforts” to secure justice “and to send a signal to criminals that the murder of journalists will not be tolerated.”

Audrey Azoulay, director-general of UNESCO, also issued a statement on the killing, noting that Matus and the news website he founded often reported on local violence.

“Impunity for such crimes must not be tolerated, and the perpetrators must be brought to justice,” she said.

Morales, who has been reporting in Guerrero for 13 years, said the killing and the wider issue of impunity have left him feeling vulnerable.

“This case once again shows how pervasive impunity is and how anyone can suffer an attack and be killed, especially for those of us who practice journalism,” he told VOA.

The Committee to Protect Journalists ranks Mexico sixth on its Impunity Index, which tracks prosecutions in the cases of journalist killings over a 10-year period.

At the time of the latest index in November 2022, Mexico had 28 unsolved journalist killings and had been featured in the rankings for 15 years. (VOA)

•PHOTO: FILE - A woman holds the picture of Mexican journalist Luis Martin Sanchez, whose body was found on the outskirts of the city of Tepic, during a protest on July 10, 2023, to demand justice for him, outside the Interior Ministry building in Mexico City.

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