The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today condemned the 14 April killing of Brazilian newspaper photographer Walgney Assis Carvalho and called for an investigation into the crime, which took place in the town of Coronel Briciano, in the south-eastern state of Minas Gerais.
“I am deeply concerned by the murder of Walgney Assis Carvalho,” the Director-General said. “It is important that this killing be investigated and the culprits be brought to trial. Attacks against the media prevent journalists from exercising their professional duties and undermine free access to information.”
Carvalho, 43, was a photographer for Vale do Aço newspaper. He was killed by an unidentified gunman in a restaurant one month after the murder of fellow Vale do Aço journalist, Rodrigo Neto de Feria.
This murder brings to four the number of journalists killed in Brazil this year. They are remembered in UNESCO’s dedicated web page, 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…”