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Florent Gagne
General Director
Quebec Provincial Police
17-1 Rue Parthenais
Montreal, Quebec H2K3S7
Canada


September 19, 2000

Dear Mr. Gagne:

Investigative Reporters and Editors, Inc. joins other journalism organizations and individuals in urging that the highest priority be given to finding and punishing the persons who shot Michel Auger, a crime reporter with Le Journal de Montreal, who was seriously injured Sept. 13 one day after he published an article about organized crime in Quebec Province.

The 4,500 reporters, editors and professors who belong to IRE in the United States and throughout the world are dedicated to promoting the kind of important reporting Mr. Auger has long been engaged in. We cannot help but be deeply worried by this open attack on the freedom of the press to do its important work of telling citizens about their society. For us, there is a frightening resonance in this blatant daylight attack on Mr. Auger. In 1976, one of our founding members, an investigative reporter in Arizona named Don Bolles was fatally injured when his car blew up in the middle of the day on a busy downtown Phoenix street. Bolles had been at work on a story about land fraud schemes that involved organized crime.

In an extraordinary response, nearly 50 journalists and students around the country, organized under IRE and editor Bob Greene, left their regular jobs and went to Phoenix to finish Bolles' work. They published a massive series on how organized crime had swept into that state and more importantly, they delivered a strong message that killing a journalist won't stop his story from being told. After years of investigation, the question of who exactly ordered the death of Bolles remains unclear.

That must not happen again, whether in Canada, Russia, Ireland, Colombia, or wherever journalists are under attack for exposing corruption. Our members are reacting strongly to the Auger shooting. Many are writing and broadcasting stories about it and about your investigation. Many are calling for heightened coverage here of motorcycle gangs and possible Mafia connections, tying them into the work Mr. Auger did in Montreal.

We all hope soon to be publishing news about the capture of Mr. Auger's attackers.

Sincerely,

James Neff
IRE President
-- on behalf of the IRE Board of Directors

Response from Montreal Police