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Alert

Community radio director Martín Ocampos Páez killed

(IFJ/IFEX) - The following is a translation of a 13 February 2009 IFJ media release:

The IFJ condemns the 12 January 2009 assassination of Martín Ocampos Páez, director of the Hugua Ñandu FM community radio station. At the time of his assassination, Ocampos Páez was in his home in the Concepción area of eastern Paraguay.

"We support the family and our colleagues at the Sindicato de Periodistas de Paraguay (SPP) in calling on the authorities to investigate this crime, which may be linked to comments Martín Ocampos made about suspected relationships between illegal trafficking activities and politicians in the region," IFJ Assistant Secretary General Paco Audije said.

Ocampos Páez's family and others in the area have suggested the complicity of the police and some local officials with drug traffickers in the area.

IFJ and its regional affiliate, the Latin American and Caribbean Journalists' Federation (Federación de Periodistas de América Latina y el Caribe, FEPALC), support their colleagues at the SPP, who have also spoken out recently against the death threats reported by journalist Aldo Lezcano, a correspondent for the daily ABC Color, as well the actions against reporter Richard Villasboa and camera operator Blas Salcedo, of Canal 13 television station.

The IFJ represents over 600,000 journalists in 120 countries worldwide.

For further information on the Lezcano, Villasboa and Salcedo cases, see: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/100757