Mexico among top 3 most dangerous countries for journalists in 2024: Report

MEXICO CITY

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) ranked Mexico as one of the most dangerous countries for journalists in its 2024 report released Thursday.

The international human rights organization noted that Mexico is among the most violent places for reporters outside of war zones, accounting for 30% of all journalist disappearance cases globally over the past decade.

In its 2024 round-up, it noted that five journalists were killed in Mexico, ranking it among the top three most violent places for journalism behind Palestine and Pakistan.

While there was a decrease in violence compared to previous years, including in 2022, when Mexico witnessed the murder of 15 journalists, insecurity and impunity continued to pose a direct threat, with aggressors continuing to rely on various measures of repression outside of murder such as forceful disappearance.

"Almost one hundred journalists are currently missing around the world, and more than a quarter of them have disappeared in the last 10 years. Mexico stands out as the most dangerous country, accounting for over 30% of all cases of missing journalists," said the report.

Mexico has reported more than 116,000 forceful disappearances since 1964, when the government began documenting such crimes. Since then, disappearances have become a favored method of repression by criminal groups and state security agencies. In the past six years, a person went missing in Mexico every hour.

While the report ranked the Israeli army as the main "predator of press freedom" in 2024, for countries such as Pakistan, Sudan, Colombia, Honduras, Chad and Mexico, "unidentified armed groups" were cited as the leading threat to reporters.

Outside of a reduced base of paramilitary troops, the main armed force responsible for violence in Mexico is related to drug trafficking groups, mainly international drug cartels such as the Sinaloa Cartel and the New Generation Jalisco Cartel, which continue to enforce their domain over the drug trade through violence.