UNESCO chief decries murder of Pakistani journalist

The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom today condemned the murder of Pakistani journalist Faiz Mohammad Khan Sasoli and called for those responsible to be held accountable.

Mr. Sasoli, a correspondent for Aaj Kal newspaper and Independent News of Pakistan agency, was shot as he was driving his car in Khuzdar district in Baluchistan province on Sunday.

According to the International Federation of Journalists, he had previously received death threats and survived two attacks in the past 12 months.

Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO), called on the authorities to do everything in their power to bring the perpetrators of the attack to justice.

“If impunity is never acceptable, it is even less so when it concerns protecting the right to information and the freedom of expression, which is the guarantor of democracy,” she stated in a news release.

The Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists reports that another journalist, Haji Wasi Ahmed, was also murdered in Khuzdar in April 2009, and a third journalist, Chishti Mujahid, in 2008.

Earlier this month, television journalist Ejazul Haq was shot and killed while covering attacks on the religious Ahmadi community in the city of Lahore.