Secretary-General to the United Nations (UN), Antonio Guterres, has condemned the gruesome murder of Mexican journalist, Lourdes Maldonado Lopez, making her the third journalist to be killed in Mexico this January.

A statement from the Baja California prosecutor’s office said the lifeless body of Miss Lopez was found with gunshot wounds in her car in Tijuana on Sunday evening.

The female veteran journalist had just won a lawsuit against her former employer, Jamie Bonilla, whom she accused of unfair labour practices and wrongful termination. 

Mr Bonilla had become more powerful with his emergence as governor of Baja California state in 2019, under president Lopez Obrador’s party, Morena.

Fearing for her life, she publicly sought the help of president Lopez Obrador during a press briefing. She asked for “support, help and labor justice.”

Although, the police are yet to establish a connection to the labour dispute and Miss Lopez’s murder, journalists in Mexico are organising a protest against violence and impunity as stated in a tweet by Jan-Albert Hootsen, the Mexican representative for the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

A study by Reporters without Borders described Mexico as “one of the most dangerous and deadliest countries for the media” after it ranked 143 on the Data of Press Freedom Ranking 2021, where 180 countries were assessed.

RSF’s Mexico analysis notes that “Collusion between officials and organised crime poses a grave threat to journalists’ safety and cripples the judicial system at all levels.

“Journalists who cover sensitive political stories or crime, especially at the local level, are warned, threatened and then often gunned down in cold blood. Others are abducted and never seen again, or they flee abroad as the only way to ensure their survival.” 

Miss Lopez murder had been preceded by the brutal murders of Alfonso Margarito Martínez, a photojournalist shot and killed on January 17 in Tijuana and José Luis Gamboa who was knived to death in Veracruz state earlier this month.

The UN Secretary-General has reacted to the killings through his spokesperson, Stephane Dujarric, asking the authorities to “strengthen the protection of journalists, in particular, to take further steps to prevent attacks on them, including by tackling threats and slurs aimed at them.”