The International Association of Press Clubs (IAPC) wishes to express its deepest condolences to the family, friends and colleagues of Danny Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter who was murdered by kidnappers in Pakistan.
The brutality of his murder and the callousness of those who videotaped their repugnant actions shocked people around the world.
That Danny was innocent of any wrongdoing was obvious from the start, and no one should be confused as to why he was murdered. Danny was killed simply for who and what he was - a reporter trying diligently to learn the truth.
To the culprits, kidnapping and killing a foreign journalist offered a publicity opportunity. It is for this cold-blooded reason, not his nationality nor his religion, that his life was taken.
Those who plotted and enacted this murder were not being selective. Any reporter seeking to carry out his or her professional duty to probe beneath the surface of events might have served their purposes just as well.
There is no motive that can possibly justify their actions, which have caused immeasurable harm to the international image of Pakistan.