His Excellency President Hamid Karzai
Kabul, Afghanistan

24 January 2008

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 102 countries, to express our grave concern at the murder of Norwegian journalist Carsten Thomassen.

According to reports, Mr Thomassen, a reporter for the Oslo daily Dagbladet, was killed on 14 January when militants attacked the Serena hotel in Kabul. He was covering the visit of Jonas Gahr Støre, the Norwegian Foreign Minister. One of the militants detonated a suicide bomb, while the others threw grenades and fired automatic weapons. At least six people died in the attack.

The murder of Mr Thomassen follows the killing of two German journalists in Afghanistan last October. The police never completed the investigation into their deaths.

We respectfully call on you to do everything possible to ensure that the murder of Mr Thomassen is thoroughly and transparently investigated and that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice. We ask that you do everything in your power to halt violence against journalists in Afghanistan.

We look forward to hearing from you at your earliest convenience.

Yours sincerely,

Gavin O’Reilly
President
World Association of Newspapers

George Brock
President
World Editors Forum

WAN is the global organization for the newspaper industry, with formal representative status at the United Nations, UNESCO and the Council of Europe. The organization groups 18,000 newspapers in 102 countries, 11 news agencies and nine regional and world-wide press groups. WAN is non-governmental and non-profit.