MEXICO: The United Nations urged Mexico on Tuesday to investigate the murder of journalist Jesus Alejandro Marquez, the 10th reporter killed this year in what is one of the world’s deadliest countries for the press.
Marquez, who ran an online news site called Orion Informativo, disappeared Friday and was found dead Saturday along a road in the city of Tepic, in the western state of Nayarit.
His body had multiple bullet wounds.
“The Mexico office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights calls on the authorities to carry out a prompt investigation of the murder... and bring those responsible to justice,” it said in a statement.
“The impunity that reigns in the majority of cases of violence against journalists (in Mexico) is part of what contributes to the repetition of these terrible incidents.”
Marquez’s body was found on the same day Mexico’s new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office.
The media rights group Reporters Without Borders called on the new leader to “make protecting journalists a priority for his administration,” and urged the authorities to examine Marquez’s political reporting as a likely motive in his killing.
Marquez was known for “vigorously reporting on the relationship between local officials and organized crime,” it said in a statement.
The journalist had also been a candidate for local office in Mexico’s July 1 elections for Lopez Obrador’s left-wing party, Morena.
Racked by violent crime linked to its powerful drug cartels and fueled by political corruption, Mexico is the second-deadliest country in the world for journalists after war-torn Syria, according to Reporters Without Borders.
More than 100 have been murdered in the country since 2000.
The vast majority of the cases have gone unpunished — as do more than 90 percent of violent crimes in Mexico.
UN urges Mexico to investigate latest journalist murder
UN urges Mexico to investigate latest journalist murder
- Marquez’s body was found on the same day Mexico’s new President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador took office
Disinformation the new enemy in disaster zones, says Red Cross
- “Harmful information and dehumanizing narratives” undermines humanitarian aid and putting lives of aid workers at risk
- Between 2020 and 2024, disasters affected nearly 700 million people, displaced over 105 million, and killed more than 270,000 — doubling the number in need of humanitarian aid
GENEVA: The rise of disinformation is undermining humanitarian aid and putting lives at risk, while disasters are affecting ever more people, the Red Cross warned Thursday.
“Between 2020 and 2024, disasters affected nearly 700 million people, caused more than 105 million displacements, and claimed over 270,000 lives,” the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies said.
The number of people needing humanitarian assistance more than doubled in the same timeframe, the IFRC said in its World Disasters Report 2026.
But the world’s largest humanitarian network said that “harmful information and dehumanizing narratives” were increasingly undermining trust, putting the lives of aid workers at risk.
“In polarized and politically-charged contexts, humanitarian principles such as neutrality and impartiality are increasingly misunderstood, misrepresented or deliberately attacked online,” it said.
The IFRC has more than 17 million volunteers across more than 191 countries.
“In every crisis I have witnessed, information is as essential as food, water and shelter,” said the Geneva-based federation’s secretary general Jagan Chapagain.
“But when information is false, misleading or deliberately manipulated, it can deepen fear, obstruct humanitarian access and cost lives.”
He said harmful information was not a new phenomenon, but it was now moving “with unprecedented speed and reach.”
Chapagain said digital platforms were proving “fertile ground for lies.”
The IFRC report said the challenge nowadays was no longer about the availability of information but its reliability, noting that the production and spread of disinformation was easily amplified by artificial intelligence.
- ‘Life and death’ -
The report cited numerous recent examples of harmful information hampering crisis response.
During the 2024 floods in Valencia, false narratives online accused the Spanish Red Cross of diverting aid to migrants, which in turn fueled “xenophobic attacks on volunteers,” the IFRC said.
In South Sudan, rumors that humanitarian agencies were distributing poisoned food “caused people to avoid life-saving aid” and led to threats against Red Cross staff.
In Lebanon, false claims that volunteers were spreading Covid-19, favoring certain groups with aid and providing unsafe cholera vaccines eroded trust and endangered vulnerable communities, the IFRC said.
And in Bangladesh, during political unrest, volunteers faced “widespread accusations of inaction and political alignment,” leading to harassment and reputational damage, it added.
Similar events were registered by the IFRC in Sudan, Myanmar, Peru, the United States, New Zealand, Canada, Kenya and Bulgaria.
The report underlined that around 94 percent of disasters were handled by national authorities and local communities, without international interventions.
“However, while volunteers, local leaders and community media are often the most trusted messengers, they operate in increasingly hostile and polarized information environments,” the IFRC said.
The federation called on governments, tech firms, humanitarian agencies and local actors to recognize that reliable information “is a matter of life and death.”
“Without trust, people are less likely to prepare, seek help or follow life-saving guidance; with it, communities act together, absorb shocks and recover more effectively,” said Chapagain.
The organization urged technology platforms to prioritize authoritative information from trusted sources in crisis contexts, and transparently moderate harmful content.
And it said humanitarian agencies needed to make preparing to deal with disinformation “a core function” of their operations, with trained teams and analytics.
