(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Paris, 8 May 2000 For immediate release Press Groups Condemn Killing of Spanish Journalist The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum have condemned the killing of José Luis Lopez de la Calle of Spain’s El Mundo newspaper, allegedly by the Basque terrorist group […]
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Paris, 8 May 2000
For immediate release
Press Groups Condemn Killing of Spanish Journalist
The World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum have condemned the killing of José Luis Lopez de la Calle of Spain’s El Mundo newspaper, allegedly by the Basque terrorist group ETA.
“This cowardly act, attributed to the ETA organisation, represents the worst possible violation of freedom of the press,” said the Director General of WAN, Timothy Balding, in a letter to the Editor of El Mundo, Pedro Ramirez.
“The persons responsible, in addition to displaying a total disregard and contempt for human life, demonstrate implacably their equal contempt for the human right of freedom of expression by perpetrating the ultimate form of censorship — the murder of a journalist,” said the letter.
Mr. Lopez, one of Spain’s leading reporters in the Basque region, was shot and killed on Sunday outside his home in the town of Andoain. He was 62.
Mr. Lopez, who had served five years in prison during General Francisco Franco’s dictatorship, was an advocate of peaceful dialogue in the struggle between Basque separatists and the Spanish state.
“WAN would like to pay tribute to the extraordinary courage of Mr Lopez de Calle, who continued to place the freedom to write objectively above concern for his own life,” Mr Balding said in his letter to Mr. Ramirez, who is Chairman of the WAN Press Freedom Committee. “His death will stand as a tragic symbol to journalists around the world of the price of freedom.”
Earlier this month, WAN and the WEF had protested against an attempt, allegedly by the ETA, to kill another Spanish journalist, Jesús María Zuloaga. A letter bomb sent to him was detected before it exploded.
“These attempts on journalists’ lives appear to indicate an escalation in the campaign, apparently led by ETA, to intimidate the news media,” said Mr Balding at that time.
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.
The WEF is the branch of WAN that represents senior news executives.
