The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today deplored the shooting of Mexican journalist Jaime González Dominguez and expressed grave concern over the safety of media workers in the country.
“I condemn the murder of Jaime González Dominguez,” the Director-General said. “The level of violence experienced by media workers in Mexico is alarming and it is essential that the culprits of attacks on journalists be brought to trial. This is indispensable for freedom of speech and freedom of information.”
Jaime González Dominguez, 38, the editor of the Ojinaga Noticias news website, was killed in the town of Ojinaga, near the border with Texas on 3 March. The website is reported to have stopped operating for fear of further attacks against the journalist’s partners.
In 2012, seven journalists were killed in Mexico. All are remembered on the dedicated webpage, 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…”