UNESCO Director-General calls for investigation into the murder of Ecuadorian journalist Fausto Valdiviezo Moscoso

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today deplored the murder of Ecuadorian journalist Fausto Valdiviezo Moscoso on 11 April in Atarazana, north of Guayaquil, and asked for an investigation into this crime.

“I deplore the murder of Fausto Valdiviezo, whose tragic death highlights the need to protect media professionals,” said Ms Bokova. “I am confident that the Ecuadorian authorities will do their utmost to identify the culprits of this crime and bring them to justice; the exercise of freedom of expression is a cornerstone of democracy and the rule of law,” she added.

Fausto Valdiviezo, 52, was shot dead by an unidentified man while driving his car. According to the NGO Reporters Without Borders, the journalist had already escaped gun shots one day earlier. Over 30 years, Fausto Valdiviezo had presented programmes for the television channels Ecuavisa, Sí TV, RTS and TC Televisión. He was due to start a new programme on Teleamazonas.

He is remembered in the dedicated webpage, UNESCO Condemns the Killing of Journalists.

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Media contact: Sylvie Coudray, s.coudray(at)unesco.org,  +33 (0)1 45 68 42 12

UNESCO is the United Nations agency with a mandate to defend freedom of expression and press freedom. Article 1 of its Constitution requires the Organization to “further universal respect for justice, for the rule of law and for the human rights and fundamental freedoms which are affirmed for the peoples of the world, without distinction of race, sex, language or religion, by the Charter of the United Nations.” To realize this the Organization is requested to “collaborate in the work of advancing the mutual knowledge and understanding of peoples, through all means of mass communication and to that end recommend such international agreements as may be necessary to promote the free flow of ideas by word and image…”