Inquiry into killing of journalists’ sons urged

AFP/Mexico CityMedia rights groups yesterday called for a thorough investigation into the murder of two sons of prominent Mexican journalists, criticising authorities for saying the killing had nothing to do with their parents’ work.Alfredo and Diego Paramo Gonzalez, aged 20 and 21, were shot several times early Saturday by gunmen who had followed their car in the capital of the northern state of Chihuahua, one of the most violent in the country.Carlos Gonzalez Estrada, a spokesman for the state prosecutor’s office, said the killings in the eponymous city of Chihuahua was “not linked to the journalism work” of their parents.They were the sons of David Paramo, a financial journalist for TV Azteca based in Mexico City, and Marta Gonzalez Nicholson, the director of a Chihuahua newspaper. Mike O’Connor, representative of the US-based Committee to Protect Journalists, said authorities were “wrong” to issue an opinion in the case so quickly after the murder.“We ask state and federal authorities to conduct a thorough investigation, that they don’t rule out any line of investigation, including that it could be related to the parents’ profession,” Balbina Flores, Mexico representative of media rights group Reporters Without Borders, said.President Enrique Pena Nieto expressed his condolences to the parents of the victims and ordered the federal attorney general’s office to send a team to assist state prosecutors in the investigation. Chihuahua, which borders Texas, is one of the most violent states in Mexico, a country engulfed in brutal turf wars between drug cartels that have left more than 70,000 people dead since 2006. Mexico is among the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. The National Commission for Human Rights reported last week that 84 media workers have been killed while another 20 have disappeared in the past decade, and most of the crimes remain unsolved.