The Hay Festival, an annual literature festival that this year was to take place is the Mexican City of Xalapa, canceled its upcoming event, according to the BBC. 

Coordinators of the 10-day festival, backed by 300 writers from around the world that called for the cancellation, have accused the governor of the state of Veracruz of not protecting freedom of expression, as well as not taking action to end violence against journalists. 

On the Hay Festival website, the organizers talk about the importance of freedom of speech.

"As the Committee of the Periodistas de a Pie say, the Hay Festival has brought some of the greatest champions of freedom of speech to Zacatecas, to Mexico City, and to Xalapa," the message reads. "We stand by the words of our writers like Wole Soyinka, Carl Bernstein and Salman Rushdie, who have come to Xalapa and have been clear and passionate in their messages of condemnation for the targeting of journalists in Veracruz." 

In January, Moises Sanchez, a social activist and journalist for the paper La Unión who was kidnapped by armed men and found decapitated weeks later, became the 15th journalist to be killed or to have disappeared in the state of Veracruz since 2010.

Although Veracruz is one of the Mexican states known to be most affected by organized crime and violence directed against journalists, the governor of Mexico's Veracruz state, Javier Durante, defended security in the city of Xalapa.

A prosecutor on the case said a former police officer confessed to taking part in Sanchez's murder with direct orders from the local mayor.

The Hay Festival called for Duarte to do something about the violence directed against journalists in his state.

According to the BBC, the Hay Festival released a statement clarifying their position: "Since Mr. Duarte started in government in 2010 in Veracruz eleven journalists have been murdered and four more have disappeared.

"A festival of culture and freedom like the Hay Festival cannot take place in an environment of violence against culture and freedom."

The governor of Veracruz defended Xalapa and said the city was less dangerous than some other sites where the Hay Festival has previously held its event, citing in particular Beirut where the mayor claimed, "Violence there was not comparable with rates in Veracruz."

The event will be held online instead.