DIRECTOR-GENERAL
CALLS FOR END TO IMPUNITY IN MURDER OF JOURNALISTS AFTER COLOMBIA AND
PHILIPPINES KILLINGS
Paris, November 22 (No.2000-124)
- UNESCO Director-General Koichiro Matsuura today called on Member States to
take urgent steps to pursue the murderers of journalists after three recent
reports of the killing of two journalists in Colombia - radio reporter Gustavo
Rafael Ruiz Castillo and Juan Camilo Restrepo Guerra, a community radio director
- and of the assassination of Olipio “Jun” Jalapit, a Philippines radio
journalist.
Mr Matsuura declared: “These murders must once again lead us to
intensify our efforts to combat the impunity that all too often characterises
acts of violence against journalists around the world. As most professional
media organisations have done, and in line with the resolution voted unanimously
by UNESCO’s General Conference in 1997, I urgently call on our Member States,
without exception, to take all necessary measures to prevent such crimes,
investigate them and punish their perpetrators.”
Speaking of the assassinations in Colombia, where 12 journalists have
been killed this year alone, Mr Matsuura said: “Colombia’s journalists are
paying a high price for their struggle to defend freedom of expression and the
right to exercise their profession.”
Mr Ruiz Castillo, a correspondent for Radio
Galeón in Santa Marta, was found dead in the northern town of Pivijay on
November 15, while news came in of the murder on October 31 of Mr Restrepo
Guerra, Director of Radio Galaxia, a community radio station in the village of
Sevilla, who was shot dead in northwestern Colombia. The journalists are
believed to have been targeted because of their critical reporting on
paramilitary activities, commercial and business interests and corruption in
Colombia. Their murderers have not been identified.
Olipio “Jun” Jalapit, a journalist for private radio station DXPR in
Pagadian in the Philippines was gunned down on November 17. He had received
several threats related to his on-air criticism of corruption in Zamboanga
province. His killers have not been identified.
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