Mexico City, Feb 11 (AP) A journalist was shot dead in the southern state of Oaxaca Thursday, the fifth killed this year in Mexico, state authorities said.

Heber Lopez, director of the online news site Noticias Web, was killed leaving a recording studio in the port city of Salina Cruz, said an official with the Oaxaca state security agency, who requested anonymity.

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Oaxaca State Prosecutor Arturo Peimbert Calvo told Milenio TV that two suspects in the killing were in custody.

Lopez's murder follows those of four journalists in January.

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On Jan. 31, Roberto Toledo, a camera operator and video editor for the online site Monitor Michoacan was shot by assailants as he prepared for an interview in Zitacuaro, Michoacan.

In the border city of Tijuana, on Jan. 17, crime photographer Margarito Martinez was gunned down outside his home. On Jan. 23, reporter Lourdes Maldonado Lopez was found shot to death inside her car also in Tijuana.

Reporter Jose Luis Gamboa was killed in the Gulf coast state of Veracruz in an attack Jan. 10. (AP)

(The above story is verified and authored by Press Trust of India (PTI) staff. PTI, India’s premier news agency, employs more than 400 journalists and 500 stringers to cover almost every district and small town in India.. The views appearing in the above post do not reflect the opinions of LatestLY)