Mexican journalist Javier Valdez, known for his award-winning coverage of the drug trade, has been shot dead.
Unidentified attackers opened fire on him on Monday in Culiacan city in the north-western state of Sinaloa, where he lived and worked.
Valdez, 50, received the International Press Freedom Award from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) in 2011 for his work. He is one of several journalists who have been killed in Mexico this year.
Valdez was shot dead on the street near the premises of the Mexican news weekly he had founded, Ríodoce.
During his career spanning nearly three decades, Valdez wrote extensively on drug-trafficking and organised crime in Mexico, including the powerful Sinaloa drug cartel. The cartel is believed to be responsible for an estimated 25% of all illegal drugs that enter the US via Mexico.