Radio journalist shot dead in Mexico's latest media killing

A Mexican radio journalist was shot dead Saturday in a restaurant in Tabasco state, east of the capital, the latest victim in what has become one of the world's deadliest countries for the press.

Jesus Ramos Rodriguez was killed in the town of Emiliano Zapata, an official from the local prosecutor's office told AFP.

According to local media, Ramos had hosted a news bulletin for the 99.9 FM radio station for more than two decades.

The El Universal daily quoted witnesses as saying his assailant got out of a car and headed straight towards him, shooting him more than eight times at point blank range.

The killing comes weeks after a community radio station director was murdered in the northern state of Baja California Sur, in the first such case of 2019.

Rafael Murua, who had received death threats for his work, was found dead in a ditch on January 20, after being reported missing.

Murua, 34, had been under the Mexican government's protection program for journalists and rights activists.

Racked by violent crime linked to the country's drug war and fueled by political corruption, Mexico has registered more than 100 journalist murders since 2000, with 10 killed last year alone.

In December 2018, watchdog group Reporters Without Borders ranked Mexico the third-most-dangerous country for reporters after war-torn Afghanistan and Syria.

The vast majority of cases have gone unpunished -- as do more than 90 percent of violent crimes in Mexico.