Colombia

Prominent radio journalist Herbin Hoyos Medina left Colombia on Monday after authorities uncovered a supposed plot to kill him, according to local news reports. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has expressed concern about the threats against Hoyos and urges authorities to continue to provide protection and ensure that the journalist can return to Colombia and work without...

Veteran Colombian television journalist Diego de Jesús Rojas Velásquez was gunned down Tuesday outside the central city of Supía, according to interviews and press reports. The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has called on Colombian authorities to thoroughly investigate the killing. Rojas, a reporter and cameraman for the Supía-based community station Supía TV in central Caldas province...

Contravía, a TV current affairs programme that was forced off the air by threats eight months ago, resumed broadcasting on the Canal Uno public TV channel Thursday. Produced by freelance journalist Hollman Morris, Contravía has long occupied an important place in the Colombian media, above all because of its coverage of the country’s nearly half-century-old civil war. Reporters Sans Frontières...

Colombian police have arrested a man believed to have gunned down veteran radio journalist José Everardo Aguilar in retaliation for his reporting on corruption in southwestern Cauca province, according to the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). On Friday, the Colombian National Police arrested Arley Manquillo Rivera, also known as "El Huracán," at a routine checkpoint outside the provincial...

Hernando Salas Rojas, director of the Curillo municipality's local television station, in Caquetá department, was murdered on May 20, delayed reports have said. According to sources consulted by Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) , unknown individuals burst into the journalist's home and fired several shots at him. Salas, who also previously worked in radio, was a community leader and the...

Community radio station Radio Diversia, which is active on human rights issues connected to the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender) community in Bogota, received threats recently from a group calling itself "La Organización", the Foundation for Press Freedom has reported. The harassment against the station began on April 30 when unknown individuals stole various computers from the station...

Paris-based Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has reiterated its call for an investigation by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) following a new round of revelations about the spying on journalists and news media by the DAS, an intelligence agency that reports directly to the president’s office. The phone-tap scandal was first exposed by the weekly Semana in February. “Ever since...

Veteran Colombian radio journalist José Everardo Aguilar, known for his harsh criticism of local corruption, was gunned down inside his home in southwestern Cauca province on Friday night, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Around 7:15 p.m. on Friday, an unidentified individual posing as a delivery man entered Aguilar's home, saying he had a package of photos, according to...

Two individuals, who identified themselves as members of the far-right paramilitary group United Self-Defence Forces of Colombia (AUC), shot Colombian journalist Gustavo Adolfo Valencia Ayala inside his home in the eastern city of Popayán on March 16, 2009, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported quoting local news reports. The journalist, who was injured but is in stable condition...

A court in Colombia has issued an arrest warrant for prominent journalist Daniel Coronell for contempt of court after he failed to correct for a second time a story linking a local businessman to drug trafficking, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has learnt. CPJ has called on the judge to withdraw the contempt ruling until an appeal is heard. On March 18, the Penal Court of the Granada...