MIAMI, Florida (Feb. 28, 2000)-The Inter American Press Association today expressed outrage at the murder of Uruguayan journalist Julio C. De La Rosa and called on the government of the South American country to act to stop any further violent attempts to restrict press freedom there.
De Rosa, 36, news director and owner of the radio station CV 149 Radio del Centro in the northern Uruguayan town of Baltasar Brum, Artigas province, was killed last Thursday (February 24).
Police charged a former public official, Nery Colombo, with the murder. They said he was angered by comments De Rosa had made about him in one of his broadcasts which, local media reported, he felt had ruined his political career - Colombo had resigned after an investigation was begun into allegations of misconduct. He stormed into De Rosas office, opened fire, killing De Rosa, then shot himself, eye-witnesses said.
The chairman of the Inter American Press Associations Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, said that the hemisphere free-press group "deplores any act of violence, especially one that takes the life of a human being."
Molina, from Santo Domingo, the Dominican Republic, offered condolences to De Rosas family and colleagues and said he hoped this would be "an isolated incident and not unleash a wave of violence, which would be out of line with Uruguays traditional respect for freedom of the press."
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