Journalist killed in Mexico, marking third media murder this year in the country

A Mexican journalist has been killed in an armed attack in central Mexico, according to officials and local media. The photojournalist had previously been threatened.

Kristian Uriel Zavala was murdered early Sunday morning in the municipality of Silao, in the Mexican state of Guanajuato, according to the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC). He was killed alongside another person inside a car in the locality of Condado de La Pila.

Officers discovered a 2024 Nissan Sentra with bullet impacts on the windshield at 1:22 a.m. Inside the vehicle, two young men were found dead from gunshot wounds, according to the SSC report. The other victim was identified as 22-year-old Axel N.

“The government of Silao extends its condolences and joins in the grief of the families of Axel and Kristian, who belonged to the union of communicators of this municipality,” the statement said.

Zavala collaborated with crime news outlets in Silao, working as a photojournalist at Reporte Silao and managing the Facebook media outlet Silaoense Mx. In 2021, he requested protection from the state government due to threats he had received, according to El Universal.

Zavala’s murder is the third journalist killing recorded in 2025. In January, two journalists were killed in separate incidents in Mexico. Cayetano de Jesús Guerrero, deputy director of the digital media Global México, which covered politics and violence, was killed inside a vehicle while in a parking lot in the State of Mexico. He had been under government protection since 2014.

Just over a week later, Alejandro Gallegos León, director of La Voz del Pueblo and an academic and legal advisor, was found dead along a road in Tabasco shortly after being reported missing.

Mexico ranks among the most dangerous countries for journalists. In its 2024 annual report, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) stated that Mexico remains one of the most violent places for reporters outside of war zones, accounting for 30% of all journalist disappearances worldwide over the past decade.

“Almost one hundred journalists are currently missing around the world, and more than a quarter of them have disappeared in the last 10 years. Mexico stands out as the most dangerous country, accounting for over 30% of all cases of missing journalists,” the report said, citing unidentified armed groups as the leading cause.