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The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today denounced the killing of newspaper editor and reporter Kawa Ahmed Germyani in Kalar, in Iraq’s Kurdistan region.

“I condemn the murder of Kawa Ahmed Germyani,” the Director-General said, “I call on the authorities to ensure that this case is investigated thoroughly and do all they can to improve the safety of media workers in the country.”

Thirty-two-year-old Kawa Ahmed Germyani, editor of the magazine Rayal and a correspondent for the Awene newspaper, was shot by unidentified gunmen in his home in Kalar, on 05 December. He is reported to have received death threats in connection with his work.

The Director-General of UNESCO this year condemned a total of eight journalist killings in Iraq (see the dedicated page, UNESCO condemns the killing of journalists).

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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…”