UNESCO DIRECTOR-GENERAL
CONCERNED OVER THE MURDER OF NORTHERN IRELAND JOURNALIST
Paris, October 3 (N°2001-101)
- UNESCO Director-General, Koïchiro Matsuura, today expressed his sadness
and consternation about the murder in Northern Ireland on September 28 of Martin
O’Hagan, a journalist of the newspaper “The Sunday World”.
Martin O’Hagan is the first
journalist to be killed during the past 30 years of conflict in Northern
Ireland. He was killed in Lurgan County Armagh, Northern Ireland, whilst
returning home with his wife. A paramilitary group, The Red Hand Defenders, has
claimed responsibility for the murder.
The murder of Martin O’Hagan
brings to more than 15 the number of journalists killed since the beginning of
2001. As he has done repeatedly regarding the murder of journalists in the past,
the Director-General urged the authorities concerned to conduct a thorough
investigation into the assassination and bring its perpetrators to justice, in
line with Resolution 29 adopted by the General Conference of UNESCO in 1997.
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