Posts Tagged ‘Colombia’
January 19th, 2012
A
Colombian news network has accused Bogota Mayor Gustavo Petro of operating a “
totalitarian” approach to the press. In a
web article published on Tuesday, CM& said Petro handling of the press was on an “alarming and disturbing” slope. The allegations followed a recent press conference on a bullfighting ban, where Petro allegedly refused to allow journalists to use their own equipment CM& claims the Mayor’s team provided their own, edited footage instead. The Mayor claimed the allegations were “insulting”.
October 14th, 2011
The editor of a
Colombian monthly newspaper has been handed a 20-month
suspended sentence and a $5,500 fine. Luis Agustín González, who is both founder and editor of
Cundinamarca Democrática, was convicted of criminal libel yesterday, after he published
an article critical of local politician. In a 2008 article, González expressed his dismay that Maria Leonor Serrano had announced she would be a senate candidate in the 2010 elections. The article also referred to allegations of corruption throughout her career, and covered a range of disappearances and assassinations which occurred during her tenure as a town mayor.
August 31st, 2011
Following the publication of
stories in the Washington Post earlier this month that allege former Colombian president
Álvaro Uribe Vélez may have been involved in illegal actions using the national intelligence service with the help of the US, the former leader
accused the articles’ writers of being sympathisers of terrorism and accomplices of leftist guerrillas. The journalists in question are
Juan Forero, the Washington Post’s Andean region correspondent, and
Claudia Julieta Duque, a reporter who works in
Colombia.
June 7th, 2011
Two men
kidnapped Channel 22 director Mario Esteban López last night (6 June), tied a rope around his neck and forced him to drive to a secluded area where they poured gasoline on him. Fortunately the abductors’ matches also got covered in petrol and failed to light, a police car then drove by, frightening the men away. López claims he was
targeted for his reports on drug trafficking.
February 22nd, 2011
Journalists and human rights groups in Colombia have received alarming
threats from Aguilas Negras, an extreme right wing paramilitary group. The groups and individuals received a
document signed by the “Central Command of the Black Eagles” warning them that their lives are in danger. Aguilas Negras has targeted journalists in the past: one
report accused the group of imposing a “reign of terror, killing journalists or forcing them to censor themselves or flee the country”.
February 17th, 2011
On Wednesday 16 February, an unidentified group threw a
firebomb at journalist Rodolfo Zambrano’s home in Bolivar. He was unharmed as he was not there at the time. The attack caused damage to the exterior of his house, but firefighters were able to stop the flames from spreading inside. Journalists frequently face harassment in the South American country. Reporters without Borders has
placed Colombia in 145th place out of 178 countries for press freedom.
September 3rd, 2010
In Mexico’s northeastern state of Sinaloa, the Noreste newspaper issued a statement saying that its facilities were the target of an armed attack on 1 September 2010. The attack took place after a reporter received a threatening phone call from unidentified members of an organised gang. They fired bullets at the Noreste building and placed a banner with a message accusing the federal government of protecting two men who have been accused of being drug-traffickers.
In Colombia, on 30 August 2010, journalist Marco Tulio Valencia, the editor of the El Norte newspaper in Mariquita in southern Colombia, was the target of an assassination attempt when an unidentified individual fired shots at him. Valencia’s newspaper has reported on small-scale drug trafficking networks in Mariquita and that he believes the assassination attempt and threats could be linked to those reports.
July 13th, 2010
Hollman Morris, an internationally-renowned Colombian journalist,
has been barred from entering the United States to take up a fellowship at Harvard University. His visa application was denied after he was placed on a Patriot Act no-fly list. Morris has previously been publicly lauded by the State Department and
Human Rights Watch. His writing has been published around the world, and he has been received by the Pentagon, National Security Council, and the US ambassador in Bogota. The ban is thought to relate to Morris’ interviews with Colombia’s Farc guerillas, although critics have claimed that it stems from the Obama administration’s proximity to Colombia’s President Álvaro Uribe, whose government has long been criticised by Morris.
