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The vehicle containing bullet holes of journalist Celestino Ruiz assassinated on 2 August 2019. AFP Photos / Victoria Razo

Mexico is one of the most dangerous countries in the world to work as a journalist. Since 2012, the authorities have created a " Mechanism for the Protection of Human Rights Defenders and Journalists ", reporting to the Ministry of the Interior.

With our correspondent in Mexico, Patrick-John Buffe

There are 900 Mexicans to benefit from this " Mechanism for the protection of human rights defenders and journalists ". They should be over 1,100 by the end of the year. This mechanism is therefore essential.

But the problem is that he has neither the personnel nor the financial means to assume this protection and to act urgently in case of need. And one of its great challenges is, according to the UN, to put priority on preventive measures and on the causes of the risks that journalists run.

This is all the more necessary because this mechanism has not really succeeded in guaranteeing their security or that of human rights defenders: since its creation, seven of them have been murdered, even though they were incorporated into this protection program!

►Also read: Mexico: three journalists murdered in one week

An improvement in this mechanism is therefore urgent in view of the increasing violence that journalists face every day: since the beginning of the year, eleven of them have been murdered. As much as during the past year. Among them, Nevith Jaramillo, journalist for Observatorio del Sur . He had refused these protective measures because of an overly bureaucratic process. Last Saturday, he was killed by several stab wounds.