The body of yet another slain Mexican journalist was found on Monday, less than a day after he had been kidnapped by a group of armed men, the Centre for Journalism and Public Ethics (CEPET), a local media organisation in Mexico, reported.

The body of José Bladimir Antuna García was found behind a local hospital, in the Mexican state of Durango, along with a note stating: “This happened to me because I gave information to the military and wrote things that I should not have written. Be careful when preparing stories. Sincerely, Bladimir.”

His corpse showed bullet wounds and signs of strangulation.

This latest death brings IPI’s Death Watch count of journalists murdered in Mexico this year to seven, equalling that of volatile Pakistan, and surpassing that of civil-war-ravaged Somalia.

Antuna García, a crime correspondent at Durango’s El Tiempo de Durango newspaper, had reported receiving death threats at his home and office in the months prior to his killing. On several occasions the caller allegedly identified himself as a member of a local crime gang with known links to a drug cartel.

And in April this year, an unidentified gunman opened fire on Antuna García from an unmarked van as the journalist left his home for work. Antuna García fled back into his house and escaped the attack unharmed.

Local prosecutors in Durango recently informed Antuna García that an investigation into the threats against him was to be opened, CEPET reported.

However, on the morning of 2 November, the reporter was driving in the city when a white van pulled up in front of him, blocking his way.

According to local media reports, several heavily armed individuals then descended from the van, forced Antuna García out of his vehicle and into theirs, and sped off to an unknown location.

Antuna García is the second El Tiempo de Durango journalist to be murdered this year.

In May, unidentified men also pulled El Tiempo de Durango correspondent Carlos Ortega Samper out of his car, and shot him in the head. Ortega Samper had also reported receiving death threats before his murder.

“We are saddened and appalled by the death of our brave colleague, José Bladimir Antuna García. We offer our condolences to his family and again call on the Mexican authorities to ensure that those behind the vicious killings of journalists are brought to justice,” said IPI Deputy Director Alison Bethel McKenzie. “Mexico holds a shameful position as one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. For a modern democracy to allow itself to reach this position is a disgrace. How long must the list of assassinated journalists be for this unacceptable, murderous trend to be reversed?”

Worryingly, only two weeks ago Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies disbanded a special parliamentary commission* set up in 2006 to deal specifically with crimes against journalists, while long-demanded reforms that would enable federal authorities to investigate attacks on reporters appear to have stalled.

*“La Comisión Especial para dar Seguimiento a las Agresiones a Periodistas y Medios de Comunicación”