In recent months, three Colombian journalists were forced to flee their cities of residence after receiving death threats from illegal armed groups, according to a report by the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), published on April 23.
According to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP in Spanish), journalist Jesús Antonio Pareja received threatening phone calls at the beginning of April from a guerrilla member of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia. After receiving these calls, Pareja was forced to leave his city, Tolima, reported FLIP.
Also during April, journalist Dionisia Morales, community radio announcer of the city of Briceño, in the northern part of the department of Antioquia, received several calls from “a subject that identified himself as a member of the Gaitanistas Self-Defense Forces of Colombia,” ordering the journalist to leave the city, FLIP said. Morales' husband, journalist Edilberto Agudelo, also received threats and already had fled the city in December 2011, reported the news agency UPI.
Counting Agudelo and Morales, “there are five alternative media journalists in Antioquia receiving special protection by the authorities from illegally armed groups," reported Radio Caracol. The other journalists are Juan David Betancur, Luis Carlos Cervantes, and Fausto Ríos, according to Radio Caracol.
According to the Colombian Federation of Journalists, in Colombia, two journalists were killed this year, and although only one journalist was killed in 2011, violence against journalists in Colombia is still increasing which forces some journalists to relocate to other places, said CPJ.
