91�鶹������Ʒ����

The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today urged an investigation into the murder of television journalist Naseeb Miloud Karnafa, on 29 May in the city of Sabha, Libya.

“I condemn the killing of Naseeb Miloud Karnafa,” the Director-General said. “This brutal act, which also left Ms Karnafa’s fiancé dead, highlights the intolerable pressure media workers and their relatives must endure in a country that needs free information and open debate in order to rebuild itself and heal the wounds of strife.

“It is essential that the authorities bring those responsible for this crime to justice in order to protect people’s inalienable right to express themselves freely, and enable journalists’ to carry out their work,” Ms Bokova said.

Naseeb Miloud Karnafa, programme coordinator for state-owned TV station Libya Al-Wataniya, left her place of work at about 7 p.m. with her fiancé. Both were found dead the next day with their throats cut.

This is the fifth fatal attack on a media worker in Libya to be condemned by the Director-General since January 2013. Ms Bokova’s statements on these cases are posted on the dedicated webpage, UNESCO condemns the killing of journalists.

                                        ****

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…”