(Credit: Noroeste)

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas at University of Texas – Austin, reported that gunmen attacked Mexican newspaper  El Debate early Oct. 3.  “No injuries occurred. The building’s façade was shot at least 17 times,” the Knight Center reported that Mexican newspaper Milenio said.

Noroeste newspaper, also in Mazatlán, Sinaloa, was attacked in early Sept. 1, the Knight Center added.

TV reporter Maria Elena Meneses blogged that “In recent days, the kidnap of four journalists in Durango evidenced not only the vulnerability of the profession in Mexico, an alert  which was issued several years ago by NGOs and the civil society, but the urgency that exists to find long-term strategies to protect those on the trade.”

As Reuters reported in late July, four journalists were kidnapped allegedly by “suspected drug hitmen.”  Three of the journalists were cameramen – one from Milenio and two from “Mexico’s leading broadcaster Televisa.”

The kidnapping was called just “the latest attempt by cartels to silence the media.”  CNN reported a few days later, in early August, that three of the four journalists were freed.

iMediaEthics wrote Sept. 23 after the Mexican newspaper El Diario de Juarez wrote a front-page editorial to the cartels asking them what they can report.  The editorial came after one of its journalists was killed and another was injured.