Mexico's senate has approved constitutional changes that would make all attacks on journalists a federal crime.
It means that all crimes against media workers would be investigated by the central government's attorney general..
But the changes cannot take effect unless they are approved by at least 17 of Mexico's 31 state legislatures. Then they require the president's signature.
The majority of attacks on Mexican journalists have not been investigated let alone led to prosecutions.
Figures of the numbers of journalists killed differ. Mexico's national human rights commission says 74 were murdered from 2000 to 2011 while the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists says the total for the period was 51.
Source: AP
