UNESCO Director-General Voices Concern over Safety of Journalists in Haiti
10-03-2004 (Paris)
UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today deplored the killing of Spanish Antena 3 television reporter Ricardo Ortega in Haiti on March 7, and expressed the wish that journalists be enabled to carry out their work in conditions of safety.
“I deplore the death of Ricardo Ortega, one of at least six people who appear to have been killed in indiscriminate shooting,” the Director-General said. “It is essential that journalists be able to carry out their work in conditions of reasonable safety, even in cases of conflict,” Mr Matsuura continued, “and I urge the authorities to seek and prosecute the perpetrators of these attacks in which dozens are reported to have been wounded, including four other journalists.”
Mr Ortega was shot while covering a demonstration in Port-au-Prince on Sunday. Some 10,000 people are said to have been demonstrating outside the Presidential Palace when Aristide loyalists opened fire on the crowd.
(Source: Press Release No.2004-22)
Mr Ortega was shot while covering a demonstration in Port-au-Prince on Sunday. Some 10,000 people are said to have been demonstrating outside the Presidential Palace when Aristide loyalists opened fire on the crowd.
(Source: Press Release No.2004-22)
Related themes/countries
· World Press Freedom Day 2004
· Freedom of Expression: News Archives 2004
· Haiti: News Archive
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