The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA PROTESTS MURDER OF URUGUYAN JOURNALIST MIAMI, Florida (Feb. 28, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association today expressed outrage at the murder of Uruguayan journalist Julio C. De La Rosa and called on the government of the South American country to take action to stop any further […]
The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA PROTESTS MURDER OF URUGUYAN JOURNALIST
MIAMI, Florida (Feb. 28, 2000) – The Inter American Press Association today expressed outrage at the murder of Uruguayan journalist Julio C. De La Rosa and called on the government of the South American country to take action to stop any further violent attempts to restrict press freedom.
De Rosa, 36, news director and owner of the radio station CV 149 Radio del Centro in the northern Uruguayan town of Baltasar Brum, Artigas province, was killed last Thursday (February 24).
Police charged a former public official, Nery Colombo, with the murder. They said he was angered by comments De Rosa had made about him in one of his broadcasts which, local media reported, he felt had ruined his political career – Colombo resigned after an investigation was begun into allegations of misconduct. He stormed into De Rosa’s office, opened fire, killing De Rosa, and then shot himself, eyewitnesses said.
The chairman of the Inter American Press Association’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, said that the hemispheric press freedom group “deplores any act of violence, especially one that takes the life of a human being.”
Molina, from Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, offered condolences to De Rosa’s family and colleagues and said he hoped this would be “an isolated incident and not unleash a wave of violence, which would be out of line with Uruguay’s traditional respect for freedom of the press.”
