UNESCO Director General Irina Bokova condemned the assassination of journalist Anibal Barrow in Honduras, where 30 media workers have lost their lives in recent years.
In a communique published on Thursday, Bokova urged the authorities to arrest those responsible for a crime that undermines freedom of speech and journalists’ capacity to exercise their profession.
Borrow was kidnapped on June 24 when he was travelling, together with members of his family around the city of San Pedro Sula, and his body was found 15 days later.
The journalist hosted the television show “Anibal Barrow and Nothing Else,” in the channel Globo TV, and the day he was kidnapped, he had invited National People’s Resistance Front member Juan Baraona to the show. The front was set up after the coup in 2009.
During the last three years, 28 journalists have been assassinated in the Central American country and most of the crimes have not been cleared up.
“Impunity of the crimes against journalists damages freedom of the press seriously,” said the director general of the UN Organization for Education, Science and Culture.