 Irina Gueorguieva Bokova The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today urged the Government of the Philippines to investigate the 23 November attack on a convoy in the province of Minguindanao that left over 55 people, including at least 27 journalists, dead.
“This monstrous crime must not go unpunished,” said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
“I condemn this outrage and urge the Government of the Philippines to act swiftly, using all the resources at its disposal to bring the perpetrators to justice.
“The barbaric killings of the people in the convoy – journalists and citizens alike – were clearly an attack against democracy and democratic processes. Furthermore, the killing of journalists violates the rights of the Philippine people to be freely and fairly informed of political developments,” she added.
The journalists were reportedly travelling with politicians and political supporters to file nomination papers for a gubernatorial candidate in Maguindanao province in the southern Philippines, when the convoy was ambushed, UNESCO stated in a news release.
The agency said last week's deaths bring to 34 the number of journalists killed in the country this year.
Source: UN News
Global 
-
-
-
U.S. President Barack Obama's top Russia adviser has said that diplomats from Washington and Moscow will likely meet in the coming weeks to work on a new UN Security Council draft resolution targeting the Syrian government over its bloody crackdown on antigovernment protesters.
-
More than 500 protesters have gathered in Moscow's Pushkin Square to demand more government funding for science and scientists in Russia.
-
Anders Hjemdahl of the Stockholm-based Institute for Information on the Crimes of Communism talked to RFE/RL about why Western Europeans seem to know so little about the communist past.
-
The Paris prosecutor's office has dropped an investigation into a French writer's claim that former International Monetary Fund chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn tried to rape her.
-
A prominent member of a Russian anarchist street-art collective who faced jail for overturning a police car has had the charges against him lifted.
-
The Slovak parliament has approved expanding the powers of the European Union's bailout fund.
-
A Prague court has ruled that former Belarusian presidential candidate Ales Mikhalevich should not be extradited to Belarus.
Comments
|
Popular Right Now
Popular Commentary
New Reports
New World News
|