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The Director-General of UNESCO today voiced deep concern over the reported killing in Mosul of Iraqi editor Suahaa Ahmed Radhi and Iraqi TV journalist Jalla Al-Abadi, earlier this month.

“I am deeply concerned about the reported killing of Suahaa Ahmed Radhi and Jalla Al-Abadi,” the Director-General said. “It has become very difficult for the public to know what is happening in parts of Iraq, because of violent extremists. We hope the day will come when the perpetrators of these heinous acts will be prosecuted.”

Suahaa Ahmed Radhi worked as an editor for a Nineveh-based newspaper. According to the Iraqi Journalists Syndicate she was kidnapped from her home by violent militants and killed.

The Iraqi Journalists Syndicate also reported that violent extremist militants stormed the house of Mosaliah TV cameraman Jalaa Al-Abadi and shot him in a forest on the outskirts of Mosul.

The Director-General of UNESCO issues statements on the killing of media workers in line with Resolution 29 adopted by UNESCO Member States at the Organization’s General Conference of 1997, entitled “Condemnation of Violence against Journalists.” These statements are posted on a dedicated webpage, 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…”