South American journalists are under fire as their opinions regarding the drug trade, human trafficking and corruption are heavily offending those with power – and money. The latest incident involves the murder of a female radio journalist who was shot in the back by a masked suspect – and was caught on video.

Flor Alba Nunez Vargas, who was only 25, was shot in the head as she entered her work place last Thursday morning.

She had recently received death threats on Facebook over her recent local election coverage and for publishing the picture of a criminal gang blamed for a town hall break-in. She is also said to have been threatened after interviewing suspects linked to the murder of a dog last month. Shortly before her death she retweeted a link to an interview with a Colombian bishop who claimed: “All politicians are liars.”

Only three weeks before, a Brazilian radio presenter was killed while live on air by two gunmen who forced their way into his recording studio and on the 6 August, Gleydson Carvalho, a critic of local government corruption, was shot three times in the head and chest at Radio Liberdade FM in the north-eastern beach resort of Camocim, Brazil.

All three are radio journalists who hold a lot of influence seeing as radio is the easiest news medium to access in countries such as Brazil and Columbia. Let’s hope justice prevails in times such as these.

RIP.

[source: independent]