Newspaper and TV station attacked in Ciudad Juárez

Unknown men opened fire on the premises of a newspaper and a TV station in the early morning hours of March 6, according to the newspaper Milenio.

The first attack was against the newspaper El Diario around 1 a.m. 15 minutes later a similar attack was made against Canal 44, according to El Diario. There were no injuries or deaths in the attacks, and so far no arrests – in spite of a security camera that recorded the vehicle used during the first attack.

After the attacks, local and state police were deployed to guard other media organizations and prevent new attacks, said the newspaper El Universal.

The Network of Juárez Journalists condemned the attack.

“… We extend this condemnation, above all, to the representatives of the three levels of government that, in these five years in which violence has taken over the state, have not been able to prevent or solve or punish a single one of the now multiple attacks against media outlets,” the organization said.

Five days earlier, the chief of Ciudad Juárez’s municipial police, Julián Leyzaola, had criticized the media’s coverage of security issues and said: “the only thing they’re doing is building their own tomb,” according to El Mexicano. During a private event on the prevention of violence and crime, organized by the Inter-American Development Bank (IADB) and the Ministry of Social Development (Sedesol), Leyzaola referred to Canal 44 as an organization that had poor journalistic practices because its coverage damaged the image of local police.