DIRECTOR-GENERAL CONDEMNS MURDER
OF COLOMBIAN AND COSTA RICAN JOURNALISTS
Paris, July 10 (N° 2001-82) -
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the killing of four
Latin American journalists - Jorge Urbano Sanchez, Jose Vasquez and Arquimedes
Arias in Colombia, and Costa Rican journalist Parmedio Medina - all four had
denounced corruption and organized crime in their reporting and had been
threatened in the past.
Mr Matsuura condemned the killing
saying: “I cannot find words strong enough to condemn these murders which mark
a serious setback in Latin America’s struggle for freedom of expression.
Violent attacks on journalists in this region, and particularly in Colombia, are
shockingly frequent. It is imperative that the perpetrators of these acts be
brought to justice and that media professionals be protected.”
He added: “As most
professional media organizations have done over the last few years, and in line
with the resolution voted unanimously by the UNESCO General Conference in 1997,
I call on all Member States urgently to take all necessary measures to prevent
such crimes, investigate them and punish their perpetrators.”
Jorge Urbano Sanchez of Mar
Estéreo radio, was shot dead on July 7, in a car park in the centre of the
port city of Buenaventura. Jose Vasquez, news editor at Radio Caracol in
Florencia, in the southwest of Colombia, was shot and killed on the street on
July 6. Arquimedes Arias was gunned down two days earlier in his studio at the
local Radio Estéreo of the city of Fresno, in the west of the
country. The radio journalist, producer and presenter Parmedio Medina was shot
on July 7 in San Jose, the capital of Costa Rica, as he was returning home after
recording his programme La patada (the kick) for Radio Monumental
in which he regularly denounced corruption. None of the murderers of the four
journalists have been identified.
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