The investigation into the 1986 death of the publisher and editor-in-chief of the newspaper El Espectador, Guillermo Cano, will have no statute of limitations as the prosecution declared the killing, still unsolved, as a crime against humanity, reported El Espectador and El Colombiano.
Not only paramilitaries, but also government agents were involved in the 1999 killing of prominent journalist and humorist Jaime Garzón. El Heraldo reported that Colombian prosecutors ordered José Miguel Narváez, the ex-deputy director of the Administrative Department of Security (DAS, or Colombia's intelligence agency), be held for ordering Garzón's death.
Renowned Colombian journalist Hollman Morris' U.S. visa application was rejected on June 16, The Progressive is reporting. The story did not say why the U.S. Embassy in Bogotá denied his visa.
The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) reports that hackers attempted to sabotage the website of the director of the television program Contravía, Hollman Morris. (See more Knight Center stories about Morris here.) According to a technician's report, the attack used malicious code to link the website to pages associated with junk mail, which could lead the website to being blocked by search engines.
Two weeks before the second round of Colombia’s presidential election, the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) has released videos that show four police and a soldier held since the late 1990s are still alive, BBC and CNN report. The five hostages urge officials to hold talks with the rebels, BBC adds.
Colombians appear to have been more comfortable with continuity than with change by giving President Álvaro Uribe’s former defense minister, Juan Manuel Santos, a win with approximately 47 percent of the vote, and putting him into a second-round runoff June 20 with Antanas Mockus, the BBC reports. Several media from around the world were surprised by such a decisive win by Santos, after polls had predicted a tie with Mockus, El Tiempo reports (Spanish).
Wiretaps conducted by Colombian intelligence agents on judges, journalists, politicians, and human rights defenders have put more pressure on President Álvaro Uribe to be accountable. Uribe was summoned this week to testify about any possible role or knowledge he had of the wiretaps. He publicly denied claims made by the prosecutor handling the case who suggested that the president's office had leaked the press information in order to discredit the Supreme Court, CM& and El Colombiano report.
Leiderman Ortiz, editor of the newspaper La Verdad de Pueblo, was unharmed but is fearful for his life after the grenade damaged the front of his home in Caucasia, Antioquia, El Tiempo and El Mundo report.
Police authorities say they'll investigate charges that members of an anti-riot squad in Cali (western Colombia), beat reporters and photographers who were covering a Labor Day protest, RCN radio reports.
Óscar Rubio Cárdenas, 75, was killed in his apartment in Bogotá, apparently by two people who attempted to rob him, EFE reports.
The “Newsroom Council” (Consejo de Redacción—CDR) will hold its 3rd annual Investigative Journalism Meeting from April 30–May 1, 2010, in Bogotá.
Arsenio Zambrano Ocampo, a well-known independent photographer, died last week after he was stabbed in his home in Ibagué, in Tolima department, the Colombian Federation of Journalists (Fecolper) reports. Citizens and colleagues were shocked by the news, El Tiempo says.