Salvador Adame
Frida Ortiz, wife of reporter Salvador Adame Pardo, spoke to the media during a protest on 1 June against the disappearance of Adame, outside the offices of the Attorney General of the Republic in Mexico City - File Photo REUTERS/Carlos Jasso

Burnt human remains found under a bridge on a rural highway in Michoacan have been identified as those of Mexican journalist who was kidnapped on 18 May, a state prosecutor said on Monday (26 June).

Salvador Adame, director of a local TV station, Canal 6 Media TV, is now the seventh journalist to be killed in the country so far this year.

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State officials said the remains were found on 14 June near the city of Nueva Italia, and were identified with DNA testing.

According to the news website Expansion, Adame's family had reported that he was kidnapped by an armed gang.

Michoacan state prosecutor Jose Martin Godoy told reporters that the leader of the local gang, which is suspected to be behind the murder, had "personal problems" with Adame.

Other Journalist murders:

Javier Valdez, an award-winning reporter, who covered drug trafficking and organised crime, was murdered in May in the state of Sinaloa.

In April, in the Baja California peninsula, veteran reporter Maximino Rodriguez Palacios who covered the police and crime beat was "shot and killed".

None of killings have been solved so far.

Around 38 people from the media have been killed since 1992 in Mexico, making the country one of the most dangerous countries in the world for journalists, says the non-profit Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

President Enrique Peña Nieto had promised to defend the freedom of the press and in May replaced the head of the prosecutor's office. The replacement was made so as to carry out investigation of crimes against the media.