UNITED NATIONS - The head of the United Nations agency tasked with defending press freedom Friday denounced the murders of two Pakistani journalists and expressed alarm over the continued deteriorating security of journalists in the country.
“The brutal murders of Tariq Kamal and Murtaza Razvi stand unequivocally condemned,” said the Director-General of the Paris-based UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO), Irina Bokova, in a press statement, which was also released at UN Headquarters in New York.
“Every attempt must be made to bring their killers to justice,” she said.
“These latest killings, coming less than one month apart, highlight once again the dangerous conditions in which journalists in Pakistan work,” she added. “This is cause for alarm and requires urgent action, in the name of press freedom and the rights of citizens to be informed.”
Tariq Kamal, a reporter with a Sindhi language daily published in Karachi, was murdered earlier this month, while Murtaza Razvi, a well-known columnist and political analyst with an English language daily, was found dead in a Karachi apartment on 19 April.
According to Unesco, 25 journalists and media workers, including Tariq Kamal and Murtaza Razvi, have been killed in Pakistan since 2002.