With the purpose of helping journalists from different regions and reaches of the country improve their coverage of the conflict and post-conflict in Colombia, and the goal of creating a network of colleagues that specialize on these issues, several organizations have joined to launch a new digital project, Plataforma de Periodismo (“Journalism Platform” in Spanish).
Journalism organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) called on Colombian authorities to guarantee the safety of four journalists who had received threats from La Guajira governor Juan Francisco Gómez. Last weekend, Gómez was arrested for his alleged participation in three killings and accused of having links with criminal organizations, news agency AFP reported.
The former director of the now-defunct Administrative Department of Security (DAS in Spanish) of Colombia, Jorge Noguera Cotes, will not be trialed for two charges related to the so-called “chuzadas” scandal, which involved the illegal wire tapping of journalists, politicians and opposition leaders during the administration of President Álvaro Uribe, according to several publications.
The complaints Colombian journalist Manuel José Martínez Espinosa used to air through his community radio program on Popayán, Cauca cost him his life. He was killed on Sept. 28, 1993 in front of his house as his wife opened the gate to their garage.
Journalist and analyst Claudia López fled Colombia due to alleged death threats by a criminal organization, she reported on Twitter.
The killing of a newspaper vendor in Colombia has alarmed organizations such as the Foundation for Freedom of the Press, FLIP, which suspect the crime intended to silence media outlets and their sources.
Colombian journalist and attorney Édison Alberto Molina was killed last week in the city of Puerto Berrío in the Department of Antioquia, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). Molina was attacked on Sep. 11 by unidentified suspects that shot him four times in the head when he was heading back to his house with his wife, who was mildly injured.
Brazilian investigative reporter Mauro König, Colombian magazine Semana’s editor-in-chief Alejandro Rubino Santos and U.S. journalists Jon Lee Anderson and Donna DeCesare, both of whom have focused on covering Latin America for several decades, are the four journalists who will receive this year’s prestigious Maria Moors Cabot Prize.
More than 20 journalists have been attacked or threatened while reporting on the national strike that has brought Colombia’s agriculture industry to a standstill since August 18, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
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.
The programming director of a radio station in Colombia was shot and killed on July 29 in the city of Buga, located in Valle de Cauca, according to Reporters Without Borders (RSF).
When acclaimed Colombian journalist Hollman Morris was named last year as the new manager of Bogotá's public TV station Canal Capital, it seemed like a risky strategy to remove most of the channel's commercial programming and devote more resources to covering human rights.