The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today deplored the death of TV reporter Santiago Ilídio Andrade in Rio de Janeiro on 10 February.
“I am deeply concerned by the death of Santiago Ilídio Andrade,” the Director-General said. “The killing of journalists is a blow to society as a whole. Measures must be taken to improve the safety of media professionals who report from potentially dangerous scenes.
“Media corporations must train their staff on how to operate in dangerous environments, while security forces and the public at large must be made aware of the particular status of journalists during events such as the demonstration in which Ilídio Andrade was injured,” Ms. Bokova concluded.
Ilídio Andrade, a reporter for the television network Bandeirantes, was injured by an explosive device on 06 February while filming a confrontation between police and demonstrators who were protesting against an increase in public transportation fares. The journalist was brought to hospital where he died of his injuries.
Since 01 January, 2013, the Director-General of UNESCO has condemned six killings of journalists in Brazil. Her statements are posted in a dedicated page on UNESCO’s website.
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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…”