By Alejandro Martínez
As part of the peace negotations in Colombia, the Colombian Revolutionary Armed Forces (FARC) asked last Friday for public financing to create their own media outlets, reported the news agency EFE.
In a document titled “Ten Minimal Requests to Participate in Politics in the Event of a Final Accord," read by the guerilla's main negotiator Luciano Marín Arango, alias “Iván Márquez”, the FARC asked for “access to property and participation in state public media, including programming," reported the news site El Colombiano.
“In particular, a daily newspaper will be financed, a magazine on political analysis and theory, a broadcast station and a television channel with national coverage," said Márquez.
According to América Economía, Márquez said these outlets will allow the FARC to have the same level of access to the country's political life that other political parties currently enjoy.
In a series of new proposals, the FARC also asked the Colombian government to guarantee the political rights of their members currently being detained and for a number of seats at the country's legislature, reported EFE.
Last November, the administration of Colombian President Juan Manuel Santos and the FARC initiated new peace discussions in order to end the armed struggle.
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.
