Remains of kidnapped Mexican journalist found

Human remains found in the western Mexican state of Michoacán have been identified as those of journalist Salvador Adame, who was missing for more than a month, a state prosecutor said Monday.

The burned remains were found in the city of Nueva Italia, where Adame worked as the general director of Canal 6 Media TV, state prosecutor José Godoy said.

Adame disappeared May 18, when his family reported him being kidnapped by an armed group.

Because Adame was a journalist and was “referred to in the media as having been a victim of intimidation due to his profession,” the attorney general’s office launched an investigation, the state government said four days after his disappearance.

The Committee to Protect Journalists had a report on Adame in April 2016, saying local police detained him and his wife Frida Urtiz, who was also co-owner of the station, while the two covered a sit-in demonstration to protest the cancellation of a government-funded social project.

Adame told the CPJ that it came as a surprise to him.

“We cover social issues and sometimes annoy the authorities by doing so, but I have never had any problem with them,” he told CPJ.

Mexico is the deadliest country for journalists so far in 2017, according to the CPJ, which says seven journalists have been killed there “in direct retaliation” for their work.

The executive director of the CPJ, Joel Simon, said the failure of the government to adequately investigate the deaths, and impunity for the killers of journalists, adds to the problem.

“It’s basically a situation where drug trafficking organizations, which operate with the protection and collusion of local authorities, recognize there will be no consequences for killing journalists,” Simon said.

“So when they want to control information or punish journalists or censor journalists,” they can do so with impunity, he said.

CNN’s Florencia Trucco, Gremaud Angee, and Natalie Gallon contributed to this report.