Mexican newspaper shuts down because of violence against journalists

For the safety of its employees, the Norte newspaper in Juarez, Mexico, printed its final edition on Sunday.

In a farewell message, owner Oscar Cantú Murguía said the recent murder of a journalist who collaborated with his paper and a lack of security for members of the press made it too difficult and dangerous for the publication to continue its work. On March 23, Miroslava Breach Velducea was shot eight times outside of her garage, and she died en route to the hospital, The Associated Press reports. Breach was a journalist with the La Jornada national newspaper, which reported that one of her three children was with her when she was shot.

Norte was founded 27 years ago, and Cantú said that while the paper had been attacked for exposing corruption, he was "not willing for any more" journalists connected with Norte to be targeted for murder. The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas says that along with Breach, at least two other members of the press were also killed in Mexico in March: journalist Ricardo Monlui Cabrera in Verzcruz and Cecilio Pineda Birto, director of the La Voz de Tierra Caliente newspaper in Guerrero state.

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