UNESCO Condemns Yet Another Journalist’s Murder

UNESCO Condemns Yet Another Journalist’s Murder, This Time In Bangladesh

Less than a week after voicing increasing concern at the growing insecurity in which journalists around the world exercise their profession, the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) today condemned the murder of a Bangladeshi reporter.

Sheikh Belaluddin Ahmed, 48, correspondent of The Daily Sangram, died in hospital after being injured by an exploding bomb placed on his scooter in front of the Khulna Press Club in southwestern Bangladesh. Three other journalists were also injured in the attack.

“As long as such crimes go unpunished, it will be impossible to re-establish a climate conducive to liberty of expression,” UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura said, hoping that the authorities’ investigation “will result in bringing the cowards” responsible to justice.

“The media play a crucial role in the working of democracy, and it is of the utmost importance that crimes against journalists not go unpunished,” he added.

This is not the first such attack in Khulna, which is known by local journalists as the “Valley of Death.” In January, Dip Azad of the daily newspaper Jugantor was targeted by a bomb that failed to explode. Last year Manik Saha, a stringer for the BBC and correspondent of the daily New Age, and Humayun Kabir, managing editor of the daily Janmabhumi, were killed in bombings there.

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