The Director-General of UNESCO today denounced the killing of journalist Zaman Mehsud, in the Tank district of Pakistan’s Khyber Pakhtunkhwa province on 3 November.
“I condemn the murder of Zaman Mehsud,” said the Director-General. “I look forward to a full investigation of his killing. We should not let violence muzzle the media and deprive the public of news and information.”
Zaman Mehsud worked with the Urdu language Daily Ummat and the SANA news agency, as well as running the Gomel News blog. He was president and secretary general of the South Waziristan chapter of the Tribal Union of Journalists and served as a monitor for the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan.
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.
****
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…”