"The undersigned organizations highlight the risks of the rhetoric used against the media during the current electoral campaign in Colombia. This creates an environment that attempts to impide the exercise of freedom of the press, reduces the diversity of information and limits the content that citizens can access. It also raises deep concerns about the climate for journalistic work under the government that will be elected on June 19.
Since May 27, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP, by its Spanish acronym) and the Electoral Observation Mission (MOE) expressed their concern about the manipulation of the public conversation in social media, as well as the high level of violence and misinformation in the messages related to the presidential debate. A common pattern is that these attacks occur after questions and journalistic publications are considered negative for the interests of one or the other campaign, through strategies that generate intimidation and self-censorship."
