The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) called on the Colombian authorities to provide more protection for journalists threatened in the country during the past month, according to statements from both groups.
CPJ referenced the case of the city of Montería where threats from one of the Andean country's largest criminal organizations forced two journalists to flee the country.
According to CPJ Executive Director Joel Simon, "because attacks are rarely investigated, journalists take these kinds of threats very seriously." CPJ called on authorities to guarantee journalists' security and take steps to investigate the sources of the threats, added to statement.
“Journalists should not have pay because of the region’s high level of organized crime-related violence,” RSF Secretary-General Christophe Deloire said in a statement on the group's website. The organization also asked authorities to expedite the investigations into threats that violate the freedom of information and guarantee journalists' security.
RSF referenced other attacks that the Colombian press has so far received in 2013, including threats against other journalists prohibiting reporting in certain parts of the country. The threats were also reported by the Press Freedom Foundation, which called January a "critical" month for the press in Colombia.
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.
