UNESCO chief condemns killing of 13th Pakistani journalist this year

UNESCO chief condemns killing of 13th Pakistani journalist this year

2011-08-24 23:29:01 GMT+7 (ICT)

UNITED NATIONS (BNO NEWS) -- A senior United Nations (UN) official on Wednesday condemned the murder of Pakistani journalist Munir Shakar and urged justice be brought to his killers.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), underlined the importance of the justice system to bring the perpetrators of Shakar's murder to justice as soon as possible.

"Journalists must be provided with reasonable conditions of security if they are to exercise the basic human right of freedom of expression and provide people with the independent information they require to exercise their democratic rights responsibly," Bokova stated.

Shakar was a correspondent for Online News Network and Balochi television channel Sabzbagh. He was shot dead on August 14 while on his way home from the Press Club in Khuzdar in the province of Balochistan.

According to the Rural Media Network, a Pakistani non-governmental organization, Shakar's murder marks the 13th journalist killed in Pakistan this year alone. Several journalist groups have labeled Pakistan as one of the most dangerous, if not the most dangerous, places for media professionals.

Last week, the UN human rights office urged the Pakistani government to investigate numerous reports of abductions, disappearances and extrajudicial killings, particularly of journalists.

Most notably this year, the Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online, Syed Saleem Shahzad, was found dead in northeast Pakistan in late May. Human rights organizations and the U.S. government have accused Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency of carrying out the murder, although the Pakistani government rejected those accusations.

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