Freedom of information loses champion in Mexico

Reporters Without Borders is saddened to learn of journalist Mike O’Connor’s death on 29 December in Mexico City, where he represented the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Aged 67, he died of a heart attack in the apartment he shared with his wife Tracy Wilkinson, the Los Angeles Times’ Mexico City bureau chief. “We pay tribute to Mike O’Connor’s commitment to defending freedom of information in Mexico and to his constant work on behalf of journalists and human rights defenders in that country, and we offer our heartfelt condolences to his CPJ colleagues, his wife and his family,” Reporters Without Borders secretary-general Christophe Deloire said. A former war reporter for NPR, CBS News, The New York Times and other news organizations, O’Connor had been the CPJ’s representative in Mexico, one of the world’s deadliest countries for journalists, since 2009. His many reports and articles helped to shed light on the difficulties and dangers of reporting in Mexico and of covering drug trafficking and the cartel wars in particular. Photo : elgratuito.com.mx