By Ingrid Bachmann
Wiretaps conducted by Colombian intelligence agents on judges, journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders have put more pressure on President Álvaro Uribe to be accountable. Uribe was summoned this week to testify about any possible role or knowledge he had of the wiretaps. He publicly denied claims made by the prosecutor handling the case who suggested that the president's office had leaked the press information in order to discredit the Supreme Court, CM& and El Colombiano report.
According to the investigators of the illegal wiretaps, directors of Colombia's intelligence service and its financial investigation unit followed orders from the president's office and leaked information to the media that had been illegally obtained. The objective was to publicize an alleged infiltration of narco-trafficking into the Supreme Court, Semana and La República explain.
However, Uribe denies having manipulated the media or organizing a smear campaign against the judges, El Espectador reports.
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.
