DIRECTOR-GENERAL CONDEMNS MURDER OF COLOMBIAN JOURNALIST

Paris, July 6 (No.2001-80) - UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura today condemned the killing of Colombian radio reporter Pablo Emilio Parra Castañeda who was shot dead on June 27 in Tolima Department.

Mr Matsuura said: “I am saddened and outraged by this new murder of a Colombian journalist. No effort should be spared in combating the impunity that all too often characterizes acts of violence against journalists around the world, and especially in Colombia.”

Mr Parra Castañeda was the founder and head of the community radio station Planadas Cultural Estéreo in the town of Planadas. He was also a regular contributor to print and radio media in the city of Neiva, capital of Huila Department, and Ibagué, the capital of Tolima Department. One of his radio programmes provided long-distance education, broadcasting high school lessons to students unable to attend formal classes, either because they live in remote areas, or because they work. For the last four years Mr Parra Castañeda had also served as the president of the local branch of the Colombian Red Cross.

Mr Parra Castañeda’s body was found by a rural road between the town of Planadas and the nearby village of Gaitania, in an area controlled by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) where large quantities of illicit poppy used in opium is produced.

According to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the New York-based non-governmental organization, at least four journalists have been killed in Colombia in connection with their work since the start of this year.

 

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