News
Director-General urges investigation into alleged murder of Mexican journalist Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge
The Director-General of UNESCO, Irina Bokova, today called on the Mexican authorities to investigate the death of journalist Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge, whose body was found in the state of Tamaulipas near the U.S. border on 26 June.
“I am deeply concerned about the death of Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge,” the Director-General said. “It is important that the authorities investigate this killing and bring those responsible for it to trial. Journalists must be able to carry out their work safely as they play an essential role in ensuring that a well-informed public can exercise its democratic rights.”
Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge was found dead two weeks after his abduction as he was leaving a cinema with his family in Ciudad Victoria. He was a journalist for El Ciudadano newspaper and had recently created a news website by the same name.
Mario Ricardo Chávez Jorge is the second journalist killed in Mexico this year. He is remembered in the dedicated webpage, UNESCO Condemns Killing of Journalists.
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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…”
