María Teresa Ronderos

A unified front is crucial when facing a crisis in press freedom like that in the violent state of Sinaloa in Mexico, Colombian journalist and CPJ board member María Teresa Ronderos said this week. She was speaking to a packed room of print, radio, and television reporters; members of civil society groups; state legislators; union leaders; human rights activists; and even ordinary citizens, who had gathered for a discussion on the press in one of Mexico's most dangerous cities, Culiacán.

March 2010

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

Shortly after arriving in Bogotá to launch Attacks on the Press, I realized the Colombian government was well aware of our concerns about illegal espionage against the media. Top government officials, including President Alvaro Uribe Vélez, had confirmed meetings with a delegation from CPJ and the local press freedom group Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) to discuss the findings of our annual report on the government's interception of phone conversations and e-mails (including some involving CPJ) and its surveillance of Colombian journalists.

January 2010

News from the Committee to Protect Journalists

New York, December 21, 2009—The Committee to Protect Journalists announced the addition of three leading journalists to its board of directors today: Rebecca MacKinnon of Global Voices, Ahmed Rashid, journalist and scholar, and María Teresa Ronderos of Semana.com.

COLOMBIA

In May, CPJ identified Colombia as one the world's five most murderous countries for journalists, a notoriety earned by 12 work-connected slayings in the country since 2000. Over the past decade, 28 journalists in Colombia have been killed for their work.

Still, deadly violence tapered off for the second consecutive year, with only one journalist slain in 2005. The government claimed credit for the decline, but many journalists assert that pervasive self-censorship has now replaced widespread murder. An October investigative report by CPJ found that threats, assaults, and intimidation continue from all sides in the ongoing civil war, causing the press to severely limit its coverage of armed conflict, human rights abuses, organized crime, drug trafficking, and corruption.

Dozens of Latin American writers join CPJ in urging Castro to release jailed colleagues

Below is a list of Latin American journalists who have signed the petition to free Vázquez Portal Lista de periodistas latinoamericanos que han firmado la petición para liberar a Vázquez Portal