News outlets go dark to protest slayings

MEXICO CITY — Several prominent Mexican news outlets went dark Tuesday to protest the slayings of journalists across the country, including Monday’s brazen midday killing of veteran crime reporter Javier Valdez.

The “Day Without Journalism” protests were staged by publications across Mexico, where at least five journalists have been gunned down so far this year, and where few perpetrators are ever brought to justice.

On Tuesday reports emerged of yet another attack, this time against a magazine executive in the state of Jalisco.

Sonia Cordova, an executive at the weekly Semanario Costeno and the wife of the magazine’s publisher, was wounded while her 26-year-old son was killed Monday night when a gunman besieged them in the city of Autlan, the state prosecutor’s office said. Cordova was hospitalized in grave condition, the office said.

“In Mexico, journalists are killed because they can be, because nothing happens,” read the text Tuesday on the homepage of Animal Politico, one of Mexico’s most influential online news publications.

Instead of its normal content, the site published a black web page featuring photos of Valdez and other journalists slain this year. Several other major outlets did the same.

In Mexico City on Monday night, journalists marched in the street and scrawled “In Mexico they are killing us” in front of the iconic Angel of Independence monument.

Vigils were planned in several states on Tuesday evening.

Since 2000, at least 125 journalists have been killed in Mexico, according to the National Human Rights Commission, the independent federal watchdog.

Tania Montalvo, the editor of Animal Politico, said journalists in her newsroom decided to stage a “Day Without Journalism” protest Monday afternoon after they learned of Valdez’s death.

“It was a moment to do something, to say: ‘Enough is enough,’” she said.

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto sent a Twitter message Monday denouncing the killing of Valdez: “I reiterate our commitment to freedom of expression and press, fundamental to our democracy.”

But press advocates say authorities are not doing nearly enough to protect freedom of expression in Mexico, which last year was named by Reporters Without Borders as the third most deadly country in the world for journalists, after Syria and Afghanistan.

PEDRO PARDO/GETTY-AFP A journalist shows a picture of Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, who was gunned down Monday in Sinaloa.