The Mexican daily El Universal reported today that the radio journalist assassinated eight days ago near the US-Mexican border was, in fact, something more, and something less, than a journalist. That they gave him the posthumous benefit of the doubt was a reasonable judgement call. His murder, coming days before the May 3rd International Press Freedom Day, became an instant cause celebre and most press reports presumed that he had been killed by drug traffickers for his journalistic work. Not one report on the assassination mentioned anything about the radio personality's work that might have provoked his murder. He was not known as an investigative journalist, nor did he have the reputation of a crusader against powerful interests.
Mexican journalists are among the most underpaid in North America.
He was cop, or an informant, posing as a journalist. He rubbed elbows with politicians and spied for a federal police agency. The defense of journalists from attack and assassination is vitally important work. But journalists must also be defended from the killer named corruption. And that defense requires more action on the part of journalists and free expression organizations to expose the corrupt among the living.