Mexican journalist Nelson Matus Peña was shot and killed in the city of Acapulco in Guerrero on Saturday. He was the founder of ‘Lo Real de Guerrero‘, a Mexican media outlet.

Human Rights Watch Researcher Tyler Mattiace announced Matus’s death on Monday. Mattiace further added that Matus survived a previous shooting in 2019 and was the seventh journalist killed in Mexico in 2023. On Sunday, Journalists gathered outside of the Guerrero state attorney general’s office to demand that federal authorities take charge of the investigation.

The last murder of a journalist in Mexico was just reported one week ago when Luis Martín Sánchez Iñiguez’s body was discovered on July 8. In the city of Acapulco, three journalists have been shot since May 2023, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).  These include TV Azteca‘s Gerardo Torres Rentería, Opinión Ciudadana founder José Carlos González Herrera, and local reporter Alan Castro Abarca, who was shot and is still receiving care in the hospital. On July 4, Canal 6 TV presenter Carlos Jiménez received a video in which armed men threatened to kill him.

Despite repeated violence against journalists, the Mexican police were investigating without taking into account their journalistic backgrounds, as RSF observed.

Mexico was ranked 128 out of 180 countries in the World Press Freedom Index 2023. RSF reported that collusion between officials and organized crime has been threatening journalists’ safety in Mexico.