Death of Fernando Castelló, former president of Reporters Without Borders International

Fernando Castelló, a journalist who worked for the Spanish news agency EFE, died yesterday in Madrid aged 76 after a long battle with cancer, his family said. He fought for media freedom in Spain as head of the Spanish section of Reporters Without Borders and then internationally as president of Reporters Without Borders International. "It's a very sad loss for the Reporters Without Borders' community, which extends all over the world, in places where fights have to be led against censorship, said Christophe Deloire, the organization’s general-secretary. We send our deepest condolences to his family and friends." “Fernando identified with the political left and actively opposed General Franco’s dictatorship, during which he belonged to various underground organizations,” said Ramón Pérez Maura, the former vice-president of RWB’s Spanish section. “At the same time, he never tolerated media freedom violations by communist dictatorships either and, as head of the Spanish section, he monitored the suppression of media freedom in Cuba very closely.” In 2006, he was arrested and expelled from China for criticizing the decision to hold the Olympic Games in a country that persecutes independent journalists. Born in Valencia in 1937, Castelló spent most of his professional life with EFE, where he worked in the international department for many years before becoming, in turn, head of Special Services and Reports, head of the international department, and head of Control and Studies. He left EFE in 1997 as part of a lay-off of 246 employees. The same year, he was appointed president of Reporters Without Borders International, beginning what were to be many years of close cooperation with the organization’s then secretary-general, the French journalist Robert Ménard. At the same time, he continued to be president of the Spanish section until 2003, when he handed over to María Dolores Massana. The last decade of his life was marked by his battle against cancer. Reporters Without Borders is deeply grateful to him for all his work for the organization, laments his death and offers its heartfelt condolences to his family.