A Colombian activist and journalist who received death threats after uploading a video to YouTube showing police violence has decided to flee from his native city of Huila, Colombia, reported the Press Freedom Foundation (FLIP in Spanish).
The journalist Claudia Julieta Duque filed a complaint against the Colombian ex-president Álvaro Uribe for libel and defamation for associating her with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), reported Caracol Radio.
From a jail in the United States, former Colombian paramilitary commander Diego Fernando Murillo, alias "Don Berna," accused two ex-members of the Colombian national military of being responsible for the killing of journalist and comedian Jaime Garzón on Aug. 13, 1999, reported Caracol Radio.
Inspired by Colombia's Journalist Day, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP in Spanish) presented a report expressing its concern over the state of freedom of expression in Colombia. The Colombian Federation of Journalists also released a statement noting that while there were fewer reporters killed in 2011, violence against journalists continues to rise in the Andean country.
An ex-paramilitary member in Colombia was sentenced to 24 years and two months in prison for killing journalist Álvaro Alonso Escobar 10 years ago, reported the Foundation for a Free Press.
Award-winning Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, a former Harvard University Nieman Fellow, has decided to return to his home country "despite having received several threats," he said in an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas.
Controversial businessman Rupert Murdoch's media giant News Corp. and Colombia's RCN Televisión announced a partnership to launch a Spanish-language television channel in the United States to compete with Univision and Telemundo, reported The Wall Street Journal.
According to Nieman Fellow Carlos Eduardo Huertas, columnist for the Colombian magazine Semana and founding director of the Consejo de Redacción (CdR), or Newsroom Council, today's newsrooms are caught between what journalism used to be, and what it can be in the future. Huertas, a participant in the second Spark Camp, held Jan. 13-15 in Austin, TX, spoke with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas about the importance of data journalism and computer assisted reporting.
In its first study of online journalism in Colombia, the Consejo de Redacción, or Newsroom Council, (CdR in Spanish) looked at who is producing online journalism in this South American country and how. The report found that since Colombia first connected to the Internet on July 4, 1994, online media have become "the protagonists of a quiet revolution in Colombia."
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) presented a formal complaint to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for the unpunished killings of Colombian journalists, whose statue of limitation expires this year, reported the Associated Press.
Award-winning Colombian journalist Hollman Morris called on Congress to listen to the victims of wiretaps as testimony in the trial and investigation of former president Álvaro Uribe for illegal wiretapping and spying on journalists.
Expiring statutes of limitations for journalists killed in Colombia is adding to the South American country's rampant impunity, according to Periodistas en Español (Journalists in Spanish).