The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today denounced the killing of Yonni Steven Caicedo on 19 February in Colombia and urged an investigation into the case.
“I condemn the assassination of Yonni Steven Caicedo,” the Director-General said. “I call on the authorities to investigate this case and make sure that those responsible are brought to trial. Criminals must not be allowed to use violence to stop journalists from doing their work and deprive society of news and information.”
According to Colombian Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP), 21-year-old Yonni Steven Caicedo was shot dead by two unidentified men in the city of Buenaventura on 19 February.
Caicedoworked as a cameraman with local television stations TV Noticias and Más Noticias. He fled Buenaventura some months ago after receiving threats to his life and returned to the city earlier this year, FLIP says.
This case brings to five the number of journalists whose killing has been denounced by the Director-General since 1 January 2013.
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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…”