(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris, 9 May 2000 For immediate release At Least 15 Journalists Killed This Year At least fifteen journalists and other media employees have been killed so far in 2000, eight of them in Latin America, the World Association of Newspapers said on Tuesday. “Many of these […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris, 9 May 2000
For immediate release
At Least 15 Journalists Killed This Year
At least fifteen journalists and other media employees have been killed so far in 2000, eight of them in Latin America, the World Association of Newspapers said on Tuesday.
“Many of these journalists have been killed for reporting and investigating crime,” said Timothy Balding, Director General of WAN. “Governments, police and the judiciary must clearly do more both to protect journalists and to investigate and punish the perpetrators of this violence against them.”
Journalists have died this year in Bangladesh, Colombia (4), Gambia, Guatemala, Haiti, Mexico (2), Pakistan, Russia, Somalia, Spain and Uruguay.
The most recent killing occurred Sunday in Spain, where columnist Jose Luis Lopez de La Calle of the El Mundo daily was shot and killed by unknown gunmen outside his home in the northern Basque region. He had received several death threats from the Basque terrorist group ETA in the past and his house was attacked with home-made bombs earlier in the year. The killing set off widespread protests against the ETA, both internationally and in Spain.
Among the others killed are:
— Pablo Pineda, a reporter for La Opinion newspaper in Matamoros, Mexico, whose body was found on 9 April across the US border near Harlingen, Texas. He had been shot in the head. Mr. Pineda’s work had reportedly made him unpopular with both the police and criminals, and he had survived an attack by a gunman last December.
— Julio C. De La Rosa, news director and owner of radio station CV 149 Radio del Centro in Uruguay, who police say was killed on 24 February by former public official Nery Colombo, who was angered about comments made about him in a broadcast. Witnesses said Mr Colombo had stormed into Mr. De Rosa’s office, shot him dead and then shot himself.
— Antonio Gomez Gomez, owner of radio station “Ecos” in Palmor, Colombia, who was shot to death by unknown assailants on 12 February. His station promoted community action campaigns in a region where rebels groups are active.
A full list of those killed is available on the WAN web site at www.wan-press.org.
The unpunished murders of journalists will be the subject of discussions during the annual WAN meetings of the world’s press, to be held in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, next month. A press freedom roundtable, part of the 53rd World Newspaper Congress and 7th World Editors Forum, will focus on the Inter American Press Association’s “rapid response unit” of investigative journalists who look into the murder of reporters. More than 200 journalists have been killed in the Americas since 1990 and the vast majority of the cases remain unresolved.
The discussions will be led by Tony Pederson, IAPA President, Senior Vice President and Executive Editor of The Houston Chronicle, together with Danilo Arbilla, First Vice President of IAPA and Editor of Busqueda in Uruguay.
The discussions, to be held on 11 June, will also focus on repression of private media in Yugoslavia, where independent journalism is in grave danger of elimination. Radomir Diklic, President of the Association of Private Media of Serbia and Chief Executive of Beta News Agency, will report.
The Paris-based WAN, the global organisation for the newspaper industry, defends and promotes press freedom world-wide. It represents 17,000 newspapers; its membership includes 63 national newspaper associations, individual newspaper executives in 93 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional and world-wide press groups.
