At a ceremony on Nov. 28 in Brussels, the organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) presented its Press Freedom Awards. The founder of the Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico, José Rubén Zamora, received the award in the “Independence” category. The Colombian journalist Juan Pablo Barrientos was awarded in the “Impact” category.
RSF highlighted Zamora’s work for two decades exposing “Guatemalan political corruption” that made him “subject to growing threats and judicial harassment.” Zamora was arrested in July 2022 accused of money laundering. After a year in preventive detention, in June 2023 he was sentenced to six years in prison, a sentence that was overturned on appeal. Zamora remains detained until there is a new trial.
Regarding Barrientos, winner in the Impact category, RSF highlighted that “thanks to this journalist’s work, Colombia learned the identities of 26 Catholic priests who had been accused of sex crimes.” Author of several books, including 'Let the children come to me,' the journalist “had been persecuted and subjected to censorship attempts for seven years because of his investigations into this subject and corruption.”
