"Full light must be shed" on the 2011 murder in Pakistan of journalist Saleem Shahzad and unstinting efforts made to catch his killers and those of all slain reporters, according to European Parliament president Antonio Tajani.
"Full light must be shed on this murder, just as it is right it should be in the cases of many journalists around the world," Tajani told Adnkronos International (AKI).
"It is right that we should know who the assassins were and who ordered the killing," said Tajani.
Shahzad's badly tortured body was found in a canal in northeast Pakistan on 31 May 2011 after he vanished in the capital Islamabad on 29 May 2011 on his way to take part in a TV show.
"There is too much desire to gag the free press, as some in Italy want to do. In some countries, journalists are murdered," Tajani stated.
"Gagging the free press means also stifling democracy and freedom," Tajani went on.
He urged nations to keep probes into the killings of journalists open until "the assassins" and "those who ordered the murders" were brought to justice.
A government-appointed commission of enquiry in 2012 failed to find out who was responsible for Shahzad's murder. Prior to his killing, he had written about alleged links between Al-Qaeda and Pakistan's navy.
A 40-year-old father of three, Shahzad worked as a correspondent for AKI and was Pakistan Bureau Chief of Asia Times Online.