A journalist has been killed in an armed assault in northern Mexico, local authorities insist – the third reporter to be killed within the nation this 365 days.

Jorge Armenta, the director of media outlet Medios Obson in Ciudad Obregon, used to be beneath government protection after receiving loss of life threats.

A police officer used to be also killed within the assault and one other officer used to be wounded, the local prosecutor’s workplace said.

Extra than 140 journalists had been killed in Mexico since the 365 days 2000.

Mexico has been described as the deadliest nation for reporters outside a war zone by the journalism advocacy crew Newshounds With out Borders (RSF).

RSF said that Mr Armenta used to be beneath protection, adding that it used to be investigating the kind of protection he had. Local authorities are also investigating the killing.

Sonora disclose governor Claudia Pavlovich Arellano said she had ordered the prosecutor to “at present birth up an investigation to build and acquire these in price for the reprehensible assault”.

Mr Armenta is the third journalist to be killed in Mexico this 365 days. The physique of Victor Fernando Alvarez used to be discovered on April 11 in Acapulco, after he disappeared on 2 April. Maria Elena Ferral used to be shot slow by two folk on motorbikes when going in her car within the eastern disclose of Veracruz in March.

President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, who took workplace in December 2018, vowed to build an cease to the murders. However activists insist the measures taken by his government hold to this level been merely symbolic.

Mexico ranked 143 out of 180 countries within the 2020 world press freedom index.