Jorge Armenta: Mexican journalist killed in 'armed attack'

Mexico has been described as one of the deadliest countries for reporters outside a war zone

A journalist has been killed in an armed attack in northern Mexico, local authorities say - the third reporter to be killed in the country this year.

Jorge Armenta, the director of media outlet Medios Obson in Ciudad Obregon, was under government protection after receiving death threats.

A police officer was also killed in the attack and another officer was wounded, the local prosecutor's office said.

More than 140 journalists have been killed in Mexico since the year 2000.

Mexico has been described as the deadliest country for reporters outside a war zone by the journalism advocacy group Reporters Without Borders (RSF).

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RSF said that Mr Armenta was under protection, adding that it was investigating the type of protection he had. Local authorities are also investigating the killing.

Sonora state governor Claudia Pavlovich Arellano said she had ordered the prosecutor to "immediately begin an investigation to establish and find those responsible for the reprehensible attack".

Mr Armenta is the third journalist to be killed in Mexico this year. The body of Victor Fernando Alvarez was found on April 11 in Acapulco, after he disappeared on 2 April. Maria Elena Ferral was shot dead by two people on motorbikes when getting into her car in the eastern state of Veracruz in March.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took office in December 2018, vowed to put an end to the murders. But activists say the measures taken by his government have so far been merely symbolic.

Mexico ranked 143 out of 180 countries in the 2020 world press freedom index.