Director-General urges investigation into murder of Brazilian Reporter Rodrigo Neto de Faria
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today voiced concern over the safety of journalists in Brazil and called for an investigation into the killing of Rodrigo Neto de Faria, a crime reporter who was shot dead on 8 March in the state of Mina Gerais.
“I condemn the killing of Rodrigo Neto de Faria,” the Director-General said. “I call on the authorities to investigate this crime and bring those responsible to justice. This is an essential step to reinforce public confidence that attacks on journalists will not be tolerated.”
Neto, a crime reporter who worked for Rádio Vangarda AM and the daily newspaper Vale do Aço, was killed as he was entering his car in Ipathinga. He is reported to have received death threats.
Neto is the third journalist to be killed in Brazil this year. They are all remembered in the dedicated webpage, UNESCO Condemns the Killing of Journalists.
****
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…”
<- Back to: All news