Pakistan Press Foundation (PPF), in a letter to Mario Abdo Benítez, President of Paraguay has expressed concern over the death threats to Noelia Diaz Esquivel, journalist and secretary general of the Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay (Paraguayan Journalists Union, SPP).
PPF Secretary General Owais Aslam Ali has called on the Paraguayan authorities to immediately investigate the matter and find those responsible for threatening the journalist. PPF has also urged the authorities to provide security to Noelia Diaz Esquivel and her family.
According to Sindicato de Periodistas del Paraguay, on October 10, the journalist reported that she had received a death threat on her Twitter account from an anonymous profile. Diaz Esquivel received the threat after she published information about the murder of Dalma Rojas. Rojas was murdered along with her family by her ex-partner, who was charged on October 9.
Someone using the Twitter handle @LicPique tweeted, “Sincerely, with the fight that’s being undertaken, and with the pardon of Paraguayans, you need to be assassinated and I would be delighted to kill you… Afterward, I would go to jail happy. I’m going to do it. I will find you.”
After few hours of the post the twitter account was suspended.
The journalist also filed a complaint regarding the threat with the Cyber Crimes Division of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and also submitted a request to the National Police for implementation of the security protocol for journalists at high risk.
