Mexico experienced a marked escalation in threats to journalists in 2025, according to a report published by the UK-based advocacy group Article 19. The organisation documented a total of eight journalists who were either murdered or disappeared in the country during the year - one disappearance and seven murders - placing Mexico at the top of regional rankings for violence and legal pressure against the press.
Article 19 contrasted the 2025 toll with the previous year, noting that four journalists had been murdered in Mexico in 2024. The report also recorded 53 physical attacks against reporters in 2025, a figure substantially higher than the numbers cited for neighbouring countries: 10 attacks in Honduras and nine in Guatemala.
The incidents of lethal violence reported in 2025 were concentrated in states where criminal organisations operate and levels of violence are elevated. The report lists Durango, the State of Mexico, Guanajuato, Guerrero, and the U.S. border state of Sonora as locations where journalists were killed.
Beyond physical attacks, Article 19 said Mexico set a new record for judicial harassment of the press in 2025. The report states that abuse of public power has become the second leading mechanism of harassment against journalists in Mexico and identifies it as the fastest-growing trend documented by the organisation in the country, with 153 cases.
In the subset of incidents where victims or their families lodged accusations, the report found that nearly one in every three aggressors was a public official. The organisation highlighted the significance of that finding in the context of rising legal pressure on media workers.
2025 was the first full calendar year under the government of President Claudia Sheinbaum, who took office in October 2024. A spokesperson for President Sheinbaum did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Article 19's findings.
At the presentation of the report, Leopoldo Maldonado, regional director for Mexico and Central America at Article 19, urged the public not to accept the normalization of violence and intimidation directed at journalists. Maldonado said: "We call on society not to get used to this and not to normalize the idea that reporting can end a persons life, that searching for the disappeared is a death sentence, and that asking questions is a risk."
The Article 19 findings follow a February statement from the Committee to Protect Journalists, which named Mexico the deadliest country for journalists in 2025 outside the active war zones of Gaza, Yemen, and Sudan. The Committee said that a record 129 journalists and media workers were killed globally in the course of their work last year, and that two-thirds of those deaths were attributed to Israel.
The report by Article 19 documents an increase in both physical violence and legal mechanisms used against members of the press in Mexico during 2025. Its data points to concentrated violence in specific states, a rise in judicial harassment quantified at 153 cases, and a notable share of alleged aggressors being public officials.