CPJ, partners call on Colombian authorities to address press freedom violations in protest response
The Committee to Protect Journalists, Reporters Without Borders (RSF), and IFEX-ALC–which includes 24 member organizations across Latin America–yesterday sent a letter to Colombian President Iván Duque and three other high-ranking Colombian officials urging them to investigate press freedom violations committed by state security forces responding to protests and guarantee Colombians’ rights to access information and…
CPJ calls on Colombian security forces to ensure safety of journalists covering demonstrations
New York, May 5, 2021 — The Committee to Protect Journalists today called on Colombian security forces to ensure that journalists can freely and safely cover demonstrations across the country. “We are deeply concerned by widespread reports of human rights abuses by Colombian security forces responding to protests, including dozens of reported press freedom violations,”…
Colombia court’s ruling in Vicky Dávila, RCN defamation case sets dangerous precedent for investigative reporting
Bogotá, October 29, 2020 – The Committee to Protect Journalists today condemned a Colombian appellate court’s decision ordering journalist Vicky Dávila Hoyos and media outlet RCN to pay damages for reports broadcast in 2014 on alleged police corruption. On October 15, a Bogotá appellate court ordered Dávila, one of Colombia’s best-known journalists, and the private…
Colombia to file criminal charges against journalist Diana Díaz for revealing censorship at public media network
The Colombian Attorney General’s office announced on October 19, 2020, that it will file criminal charges against Diana Díaz, a former public TV station manager, for leaking to the Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) a recording of a conversation in which her supervisor suggested canceling a program because its host had criticized a proposed…
Three photographers arrested while covering protests in Medellín, Colombia
On June 15, 2020, police assaulted, arrested, and detained overnight photographers Harrison Agudelo, Juan Carlos Londoño, and Juan Pablo Herrera, according to Londoño who spoke to CPJ via phone and the Bogotá-based group Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP). The incident happened as the three were covering an anti-government protest in the western Colombian city of…
In Colombia, a shipping container on wheels brings a roving reporting workshop to news deserts
Can the key to ending news blackouts in isolated areas of Colombia come from inside a shipping container? The Bogotá-based Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) thinks so. In an experiment to turn community activists into reporters in regions that lack local news outlets, FLIP has converted a shipping container into a roving journalism classroom. For…
Killing of radio journalist highlights dangers for local reporters in Colombia’s border region
The otherwise Spartan studio of Samaniego Stereo is adorned by a white banner emblazoned with the image of Libardo Montenegro, a veteran reporter for the community radio station in southern Colombia who was shot dead on June 11. Under his photo are the words: “You will live in our hearts forever.”
Colombia sentences two ex-paramilitary fighters for 2000 attack on Jineth Bedoya
Miami, May 8, 2019–The Committee to Protect Journalists welcomes the sentencing on May 6 of former paramilitary fighters Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco and Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera for the kidnapping, rape, and torture of Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima in 2000.
Colombian journalists receive series of threats over 72 hours
New York, July 18, 2018–Colombian authorities should immediately investigate a series of threats against journalists and news outlets in recent days, ensure the journalists’ safety, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
Fabricated attacks by Colombian journalists mask real dangers
Although Colombian journalists are frequently threatened by Marxist guerrillas, criminal gangs, and corrupt politicians trying to silence them, two recent cases that created widespread concern–including alerts from CPJ–were fabricated by the very reporters who claimed to have been targeted.