“On the afternoon of Saturday [June 6], armed men fatally shot veteran journalist Cristian Herrera Nariño in a neighborhood in the city of Cúcuta, in Colombia’s Norte de Santander department. Herrera was a member of the board of directors of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP, by its Spanish acronym) and had been threatened for years because of his journalistic work. He had recently reported on corruption and public security issues in his city.
‘This crime against the journalist is an act that affects press freedom by silencing a critical regional voice,’ FLIP said in a statement. ‘Every journalist silenced by violence is an irreparable loss for their loved ones, for journalism and for democracy.’
[…] With Herrera’s death, the number of journalists killed in Colombia for reasons related to their work since 1977 rises to 171. Herrera, his fellow FLIP board members said, was a tireless defender of freedom of expression. For years, he served as the organization’s correspondent in Norte de Santander, where he documented and reported attacks against journalists and the state of press freedom in the region.”
Read original article (in Spanish)
This text was translated with the assistance of AI and reviewed by Teresa Mioli
