A grenade exploded Saturday, Sept. 25, at the radio station Olimpica Stereo, in the city of Villavicencio. No one was injured, reported the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
Thieves made off with computers and several USB drives from the house of Ignacio Gómez, a TV news host and the president of the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). For the journalist, one of the targets of illegal spying by the Administrative Department of Security (Colombia’s intelligence agency – DAS), this is the fifth robbery in seven years.
The International Press Institute and the Poynter Institute have teamed up to publish a 152-page report on the future of news. The report, "Brave News Worlds: Navigating the New Media Landscape," was published Sept 13, 2010.
Colombia’s Minster of Interior and Justice, Germán Vargas Lleras, has proposed declasifying secret intelligence agency reports on illegal espionage against politicians, judges, journalists, and human rights activists, EFE reports.
Prosecutor Ricardo Bejarano was taken off the investigation of TV journalist William Parra, just days after Bejarano had sought an arrest warrant for the Colombian reporter, accusing him of links to guerrillas, reported the Associated Press (AP).
Similar to the United States' recent denial of a visa for television journalist Hollman Morris to come to Harvard University as a Nieman Fellow, now a second Colombian journalist, Claudia Duque, has had her visa request rejected, according to journalism.co.uk.
Two individuals set on fire the motorcycle of journalist Alberto Caballero Parejo, owner of the community radio station Innovación Estéreo (Innovation Stereo) in Ciéanaga, reported El Informador. Neighbors warned the journalist and helped him to put out the fire.
William Parra Jaimes, who worked for the multi-state channel Telesur in Colombia, is being investigated for alleged links to the Armed Revolutionary Forces of Colombia (FARC) that go beyond his role as a journalist, reported El Espectador and the Associated Press. An international arrest warrant for Parra charges him with conspiracy, rebellion and financing terrorism, added EFE and Colombia Reports.
Luis Carlos Cervantes, correspondent for Teleantioquia in Tarazá, is being protected by police after receiving anonymous death threats that told him to leave town within 72 hours, reported El Espectador and RCN Noticias.
A man on a motorcycle shot five times at journalist Marco Tulio Valencia who was on his way to his home in Mariquita the night of Aug. 30, reported El Nuevo Día. The bullets hit a wall and window, but Valencia was uninjured.
Colombian police de-activated a bomb alleged FARC guerrillas left outside Linda Estéreo, a community radio station in the town of El Doncello, Caquetá, reported EFE and RCN Radio.
In June, the U.S. embassy in Bogota denied renowned television journalist Hollman Morris a visa to come to the United States as a Nieman Fellow at Harvard University, permanently banning him from entry on the basis that the Patriot Act blocked him because of "terrorist ties.". After public outcry, however, the U.S. State Department in July reversed its decision.