Some 40 reporters held a vigil outside the attorney general's office in Los Mochis, Sinaloa (NW Mexico), insisting that authorities quicken their response to the abduction of José Luis Romero, crime reporter for the Línea Directa radio station. A state official acknowledged there were no advances in the case, Línea Directa and La Jornada report.

The state's chief police investigator was killed hours after he began investigating Romero's Dec. 30 abduction by several masked gunmen who were seen forcing the reporter into a SUV, the Committee to Protect Journalists and The Washington Post add.

Several of Romero’s radio colleagues believe he was targeted for his work. He had covered the crime beat for about 20 years and was well informed about the drug trade but cautious about what he reported on the air, CPJ says.

Separately, the director of a journalists' union in Guerrero has demanded that state and federal governments respond to the killings of six journalists in that southern state, La Jornada adds.