UNESCO chief deplores murder of Mexican journalist

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with upholding press freedom condemned the kidnapping and murder of a newspaper journalist in Mexico, calling on the nation’s authorities to catch those behind the killing.

The murder of Eliseo Barrón Hernández, who wrote for the La Opinión de Torreón for 11 years, is the “latest in a long list of attacks on journalists” in Mexico, Koïchiro Matsuura, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), said.

“Letting such attacks go unpunished only encourages more crime,” he added.

Mr. Barrón, who last published article was on local police corruption, was abducted from his home in Gomez Palacio, in Durango state, on 25 May in the presence of his wife and children. His body was found several hours later in a nearby irrigation canal.

Another journalist, Carlos Ortega Melo Samper, a lawyer and correspondent for the regional daily Tiempo de Durango, was assassinated in the same state earlier in May. According to UNESCO, he frequently brought accusations against municipal officials in his articles.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, a non-governmental organization, 49 journalists have been killed since 2000, four of them since the start of 2009.