Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), in a letter to Enrique Peña Nieto, President of Mexico, expressed serious concern over the brutal murder of a journalist Cecilio Pineda Birto on March 2 in Altamirano city, Guerrero state.
PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali urged the government of Mexico, to thoroughly investigate and bring to justice, the perpetrators of this brutal act and reinforce its commitment to media freedom by ending the culture of impunity.
According to Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Mexican journalist Birto was shot by unidentified armed motor cyclists. He was waiting in hammock for his turn at car wash facility.
Birto covered local police actions, reported violence in the region and clashes among criminal gangs. Few hours earlier of his murder he uploaded a video on his face book, in which kidnapper’s gang leader was referred.
Birto was the editor of the newspaper La Voz de Tierra Caliente, and stringer for El Universal and other local media. He had serious threats to his life and officials contacted him, and offered to evacuate, from Ciudad Altamirano but the offer was refused by him.
Earlier, in 2015 he was attacked while arriving at home but fortunately remained unhurt.
