His Excellency President Hugo Chavez
Caracas, Venezuela
C/o Permanent Representative to UN
E-mail: venezuela@un.int
16 September 2004

Your Excellency,

We are writing on behalf of the World Association of Newspapers and the World Editors Forum, which represent 18,000 publications in 100 countries, to express our outrage at the murder of journalist Mauro Marcano.

According to reports, on 1 September unidentified men shot and killed Mr Marcano in the city of Maturín, eastern Venezuela. Mr Marcano was the host of an opinion show on local station Radio 1.080 AM and had reportedly implicated several local businessmen in drug trafficking. Mr Marcano was also a councillor for the Acción Democrática party and headed the Maturín Municipal Chamber’s Common Lands Commission.

We respectfully call on you to ensure that the murder of Mr Mauro Marcano is thoroughly investigated and that those responsible are swiftly brought to justice. We urge you to do everything possible to create an environment in which journalists are able to carry out their duties without fear of violence.

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

Yours sincerely,

Seok Hyun Hong
President
World Association of Newspapers
George Brock
President
World Editors Forum
cc : Mr Kofi Annan, Secretary-General, United Nations
Mr Koichiro Matsuura, Director-General, UNESCO