texas-moody

Colombian Constitutional Court to review journalist's action against the National Protection Unit for personal data collection

"The Constitutional Court [of Colombia] selected for review a tutela (constitutional protection action) filed by journalist Claudia Julieta Duque against the National Protection Unit (UNP, by its Spanish acronym) for having collected, without her consent, 25,183 records through the GPS of the vehicle assigned for her protection. She claims she was a victim of illegal surveillance and surveillance by the now defunct DAS.

According to the Foundation for Press Freedom and the organization El Veinte, which asked the high court to review the case, the UNP collected 120 daily points of information on Duque's movements, equivalent to five records for every hour, during a period of 209 days.

This case is also important because it is part of a series of complaints filed by Duque before the Prosecutor's Office since 2020 of the existence of a criminal plan against her, of which she was informed by various sources. In August 2021, Duque learned that the Colombian State confirmed before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (which granted protection measures to the journalist and her daughter), that the UNP did monitor the movements of her vehicle."

Read original story (in Spanish)