“I condemn the killings of Diego Salomón Esteban Gaspar and Álvaro Alfredo Aceituno López," the Director-General said. "Violent crimes must not be allowed to limit media workers’ freedom to carry out their work, which is important for society as a whole.”

On 25 June, Aceituno López, director and broadcaster of Radio Ilusión, a local station, was shot in the city of Quetzaltenango in the west of Guatemala.

Meanwhile, independent reports confirmed the killing on 30 April of Esteban Gaspar, a presenter on local broadcaster Radio Sembrador in Ixcán, in the north of the country.

The Director-General of UNESCO issues statements on the killing of media workers in line with Resolution 29 adopted by UNESCO Member States at the Organization’s General Conference of 1997, entitled “Condemnation of Violence against Journalists.” These statements are posted on a dedicated webpage, UNESCO condemns the killing of journalists.

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Media contact: Sylvie Coudray, s.coudray(at)unesco.org,  +33 (0)1 45 68 42 12

UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this the Organization is requested to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”