Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco

New York, August 23, 2004--Mexican Federal authorities have taken over the investigation into the murder of journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco after finding evidence that the killing is linked to organized crime.

Dear Mr. Elorduy Walther:

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a New York-based nonprofit organization that works to safeguard press freedom worldwide, condemns the murder of Mexican journalist Francisco Javier Ortiz Franco, who was killed yesterday in the border city of Tijuana, in Baja California state.

Ortiz Franco, a lawyer and co-editor of the Tijuana-based weekly Zeta, had just left a physical therapy clinic with his two children when masked gunmen in a vehicle pulled up to his car and shot him four times in the head and neck, according to local news reports. Ortiz Franco died at the scene. His children were unharmed.