On the night of Friday, Aug. 3, a Colombian journalist was injured after an attack with explosives near the community radio station where she worked in Saravena, a town in Arauca, on the Venezuelan border, reported the news agency EFE, and the newspaper El Tiempo. According to Caracol radio, those responsible for the attack are allegedly members of the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish), and the attack had targeted police.
A video showing evidence that kidnapped Colombian journalist Elida Parra Alfonso is alive was broadcast on on Wednesday, August 1, on the national TV channel, Canal Caracol, according to Reporters Without Borders. The journalist, along with engineer Gina Paola Uribe, were kidnapped more than a week ago by the National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish).
The National Liberation Army (ELN in Spanish) of Colombia claimed to have kidnapped journalist Elida Parra Alfonso, who, along with an engineer, went missing on Tuesday, July 24, in the department of Arauca.
A Colombian journalist went missing mid-day Tuesday, July 24, after being held by members of an illegally armed group in the department of Arauca, located in northeast Colombia, on the border with Venezuela.
A Colombian journalist received a threatening phone call with the sounds of automatic weapons being fired while music played in the background, reported Reporters Without Borders.
Police attacked a Colombian journalist who was trying to cover a bank robbery in the city of Barranquilla, in northern Colombia, reported the newspaper El Espectador.
A Colombian radio journalist was hit in the face while trying to report about citizen complaints in the tax office of the Gobernación de Bolívar in Cartagena, Colombia, reported the newspaper El Universal.
On Tuesday, July 3, the guerrillas of the National Liberation Army of Colombia released fliers criticizing the journalistic work of the radio stations Caracol and RCN in the department of Arauca, in northern Colombia.
A Colombian activist and journalist said that a "narco-paramilitary" team plans to kill him as soon as possible and will pay $200,000 for it to happen, reported the news agency EFE.
After more than one month in captivity, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC in Spanish) released the French journalist Roméo Langlois in the middle of the jungle in the Caquetá Department to the Humanitarian Mission led by Human Rights activist Piedad Córdoba on Wednesday, May 30, the news site Telesur reported.
On the second day of the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas’ 10th annual Austin Forum on Journalism in the Americas, a panel of experts spoke on the role of state protection mechanisms for journalists in Colombia, Mexico, and Guatemala.
“I need a gun,” is what a journalist requested as a safety measure to work in Veracruz, one of the most dangerous places for the Mexican press. After the request, Daniela Pastrana, of the Mexican organizationJournalists on Foot (Periodistas a Pie) responded to that journalist that a fire arm was not the solution, but her colleague from Veracruz insisted: “I don't want the gun to defend myself, but to make sure they don't catch me alive." The reporter's response came after five Mexican journalists were found dead with signs of torture in the last 30 days.