Remains found of kidnapped journalist Salvador Adame

A Mexican journalist who was kidnapped in May in the
western state of Michoacan has been found dead, the 
sixth reporter killed this year in the country, officials announced.

A body discovered on June 14 was identified with 
DNA tests as that of Salvador Adame, a local 
television journalist who had been missing since he 
was abducted by gunmen last month, Jose Godoy, 
Michoacan chief prosecutor, told journalists on Monday.

Mexico has been the deadliest country for reporters 
in 2017, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

When Adame disappeared on May 18, CPJ issued a
statement calling for his immediate release.

According to the news website Expansion, armed men 
forced Adame into an SUV vehicle and was driven away.

Adame worked as the director of the local television 
station 6TV, and had been working as a journalist for 20 
years, when he was abducted.

In April, Adame and his wife, Frida Urtiz, were detained by
police while covering a demonstration, according to CPJ. 
He also told CPJ that police beat him and his wife, while

municipal officials looked on.




Series of murders

Also in May, Javier Valdez, an award-winning reporter 
who specialised in covering drug trafficking and 
organised crime, was murdered in the state of Sinaloa.

In April, veteran reporter Maximino Rodriguez Palacios 
was "shot and killed" in the Baja California peninsula. 
Palacios also covered the police and crime beat.

Three other journalists covering organised crime 
in Mexico have been killed since March 3 - in Chihuahua, Guerrero and Veracruz states, according to officials and media groups.

In early April, newspaper Norte de Ciudad Juarez 
announced it would cease publishing after 27 years in existence because of increasing insecurity.

Several journalists have also been wounded in armed 
attacks while others have fled their homes due to threats, 
the CPJ said.

In a 2017 report titled "No Excuse", journalist Adela 
Navarro Bello wrote for the CPJ that "covering corruption in Mexico means living with impunity".

"Between 2006 and 2016, 21 journalists were murdered 
with complete impunity in Mexico, putting the country 
sixth on CPJ's annual index that measures cases where perpetrators remain unpunished," Bello wrote.

"The system seems to be corrupt down to its very 
foundation; either that or it's simply incapable of 
achieving justice."

The overall number of murder investigations in Mexico 
also hit record levels in May as criminal violence 
increased dramatically since last year.

There were 2,186 murder probes last month, the 
highest for any month going back to 1997, according to government statistics.