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RADIO REPORTER GUNNED DOWN

A radio reporter in El Salvador who had told his family he had been receiving death threats was gunned down a few metres from his home last week, report the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Institute for Press and Society (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, IPYS).

On 20 September, Salvador Sánchez Roque was fired upon repeatedly by unidentified gunmen near his home in Soyapango, east of the capital San Salvador.

"We are worried by this act of violence, above all because it took place in a country where such attacks on journalists are infrequent," says IAPA.

Sánchez was a correspondent of the radio station Radio Maya Visión and a collaborator of the stations Radio Mi Gente, Radio YSUCA and Radio Sonora in San Salvador. The journalist reported on abuses committed by gangs, whose presence and methods of extortion are well known in the area. According to IPYS, Sánchez also covered issues related to trade union organising, for which he was well known among workers' associations and civil society organisations.

Although the motives for his killing are as yet unknown, the journalist's mother affirms that her son told her a few days before his death that he had received threats.

Visit these links:
- IAPA: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/86488/
- IPYS (Spanish): http://tinyurl.com/3e5kxk
(25 September 2007)