Newspaper office attacked in Mexico

Mexico City, April 18 (IANS/EFE) Two bombs were thrown at the office of the Mural newspaper in Zapopan, a city in the western Mexican state of Jalisco. No one was injured, state prosecutors said.

The bombs "apparently affected the building", a Jalisco Attorney General's Office spokesman told EFE.

The attack occurred around 3:30 a.m. at the newspaper's facility in Zapopan.

"The blasts only caused material damage and there is no one reported injured," Mural said in a story posted on its web site.

The attack on the newspaper, which is owned by Grupo Reforma, was the first in 14 years.

It is not known what type of explosives were used in the attack.

Some reports said the assailants may have thrown grenades at the building, while others said a homemade bomb may have been used.

Some of Grupo Reforma's other newspapers, such as El Norte de Monterrey, have been the targets of numerous attacks.

El Norte has been attacked six times since 2010.

An International Press Institute, or IPI, and World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers, or WAN-IFRA, delegation visited Mexico in February and called for more protection for journalists.

Both the IPI and Reporters Without Borders, or RSF, ranked Mexico as the fourth most dangerous country in the world for journalists in 2012, trailing only Syria, Somalia and Pakistan.

A total of 82 journalists have been murdered and 18 others have been reported missing since 2005 in Mexico, the Mexican National Human Rights Commission, or CNDH, said in a report released in December.

--IANS/EFE

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