On Thursday a Mexican journalist named Ismael Diaz Lopez was stabbed to death in the chest in Teapa, a municipality in the state of Tabasco.

Mexican authorities were investigating the murder on Friday according to a report by the Associated Press.

The state prosecutor's office stated that, given an unspecified prior legal history, the investigation was leaning toward the possibility of a family conflict being the cause of Diaz Lopez’s death.

The newspaper El Criollo, which the late journalist worked for, reported that their murdered employee had been involved in a domestic dispute.

The press watchdog group The Inter American Press Association conceded that the facts behind the writer’s death were not certain and that there should be an exhaustive investigation in order "to determine whether the motive for the crime is connected to the victim's work and to punish those responsible." The group added that Diaz Lopez had been killed inside his house by unknown intruders.

Since 1992 there have been 32 Journalists killed in Mexico according to the Committee to Protect Journalists. The large number of murdered journalists in the country is believed to be directly related to the "War on Drugs."

Marianne McCune, a radio reporter whose stories often run on NPR was speaking back in 2012 about way cartels have shifted their attitudes toward journalists, saying, “In the old days, reporters say drug cartels sometimes handed them cash saying, ‘Please refrain from talking about us,’ government officials too.”

“Now at least in Juarez they say bribes have been replaced by threats,” said McCune to On the Media.

Regarding the death of Mexican journalist Armando Saldaña Morales in May, Irina Bokova, the Director-General of the U.N. Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization, called upon authorities to “conduct a thorough investigation.”

Bokova stated that “crimes against journalists affect the whole of society and limit our ability as citizens to make informed choices.”

“For this reason, it is essential that such crimes do not go unpunished,” she says, as quoted in the U.N. News Centre.