High risk is the main ingredient.”

He continued, “Fatal attacks as well as impunity are evidence that we are prevented from freely carrying out our work.”

Breach Velducea, who was also Chihuahua correspondent for the newspaper La Jornada, was gunned down in her car outside her home in the state capital on March 23. Norte editor tells readers the paper is closing because the safety of reporters cannot be guaranteed

This article is more than 2 years old

This article is more than 2 years old

A newspaper in the Mexican border city of Juárez has announced that it is shutting down because the unpunished killings of journalists in the country have made it too dangerous to go on. The gunmen left a note saying: “For being a loud-mouth.”

Announcing the decision to close the paper, Cantu wrote: “On this day, esteemed reader, I address you to report that I have made the decision to close this newspaper due to the fact that, among other things, there are neither the guarantees nor the security to exercise critical, counterbalanced journalism. "Everything in life has a beginning and an end, and a price to pay, and if the price is life, I am not prepared for any more of my collaborators to pay it, nor am I prepared to pay it either," he wrote.Breach worked for the national newspaper La Jornada and collaborated with Norte.Announcing the closure of the paper, Cantu said there were "neither the guarantees nor the security to exercise critical, counterbalanced journalism" in the current environment. “And if this is life, I am not prepared for any more of my collaborators to pay it, nor with my own person.”

Cantu also mentioned ambiguous financial concerns that he blamed on authorities: “the arrogant refusal to pay debts contracted for the provision of services.”

In Mexico, government advertising is a major source of revenue for many news outlets, and media critics say reliance on that often leads to tame coverage and self-censorship. At least 38 journalists have been killed in Mexico since 1992 for motives confirmed as related to their work, according the Committee to Protect Journalists, a media advocacy group based in New York. On Wednesday, veteran journalist Armando Arrieta Granados, the editorial director of the daily Veracruz newspaper La Opinion, was shot and gravely wounded by four bullets as he returned to his home in the city of Poza Rica, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists.
Ciudad Juárez-based newspaper Norte closes its print edition, citing a lack of security in Mexico.