On Friday, Sept. 21, the Colombian government began consulting journalists who were victims of the armed conflict to identify proposals and strategies for their collective reparation, according to the Unit for the Care and Reparation of Victims' website. Reparations will be awarded under the guidelines outlined in the Victims and Land Restitution Law, the website noted.
At the meeting, journalists testified about attacks on reporters, their families and media outlets, concerns about the system of protection, and complaints about the ineffective and slow response from courts, among other topics, reported the Colombian Federation of Journalists (FECOLPER). The Sept. 21 meeting took place in Villavicencio, Meta, in the center of the South American country, and is the first in several working trips across the nation, FECOLPER said.
The Victims and Land Restitution Law was approved in May 2011 with the objective of compensating victims and restoring land to those displaced by the decades-long conflict, according to the website Verdad Abierta.
According to Article 151 of the Law, press workers are entitled to collective reparations with the right to restitution, compensation, rehabilitation, satisfaction and guarantees of non-repetition, reported the newspaper Notillano. In the most conflict-ridden regions, journalists targeted by the conflict also tended to be social movement leaders, the newspaper added.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
