MIAMI, Florida (August 26, 2015)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at the murder of two American journalists this morning in Virginia and offered its sympathy to the victims’ colleagues and family members.
Reporter Alison Parker, 24, and cameraman Adam Ward, 27, of the local television channel WDBJ were killed at around 6:45 a.m. in the town of Moneta while they were interviewing a representative of the local Chamber of Commerce, who was injured in the attack.
IAPA President Gustavo Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, and Claudio Paolillo, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, expressed their “consternation at the crime in which the journalists were killed,” offered their sympathy to the television colleagues and expressed their condolences to the victims’ families.
The two journalists died on the spot from their bullet wounds, after being struck by a former worker of the TV channel. The attacker died hours later after shooting himself moments before his arrest. He earlier had posted images on Facebook which he had taped during the attack, and on Twitter he claimed labor and racial discrimination.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
