ARCHIVES: Colombia
Agents of Administrative Department of Security (DAS), the national intelligence service of Colombia, had spied on critical reporters, Supreme Court judges, opposition politicians, and officials in President Alvaro Uribe's administration, leading newsweekly Semana has reported. Citing five unnamed DAS agents, the magazine said that rogue intelligence officials had monitored and intercepted thousands of emails and telephone calls at the end of 2008. The information obtained, Semana said, could... MORE
Press freedom violations in Colombia have seen a substantial decline. In the past year, there were 130 violations of press freedom. This represents a decrease of approximately 20 per cent compared to 2007, when 162 violations were recorded. In 2008 there were no job-related murders of journalists. This is a fact worth emphasising in a country like Colombia, where more than 130 journalists have been killed in the past 30 years. However, despite this positive result, judicial investigations of... MORE
Four hostages released last weekend by Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC) said at a press conference recently that the leftist guerrilla group had declared the Colombian media a "military target," according to Colombian and international news reports. The statement stirred a heated debate among Colombian journalists over coverage of guerrilla groups, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has said. Police officers Juan Fernando Galicia, Walter José Lozano, Alexis Torres, and... MORE
A Colombian judge has sentenced a former mayor to 28 years in prison for ordering the April 2003 killing of a journalist who had repeatedly denounced the politician as corrupt. The convictions of three former public officials on charges of plotting the murder of Colombian radio commentator José Emeterio Rivas represent a historic step forward in the campaign to end impunity in the killings of journalists, New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) said. The three are the first... MORE
The Constitutional Court in Colombia ruled that the government cannot take measures to restrict a journalist's freedom of expression or right to information as a result of its obligation to provide the journalist with protection, the Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) has reported. The ruling came after the court reviewed the case of a journalist who was under government protection as part of the Interior Ministry's Journalists' Protection Programme (Programa de Protección a... MORE
A Bogotá judge has ordered the arrest of Colombian journalist Alejandro Santos Rubino, the director of weekly newsmagazine Semana , for failing to follow the court's instructions in a defamation suit, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has reported. Judge Amanda Vargas de Norato of the Penal Circuit of Bogotá issued an arrest warrant for Santos on Thursday after Semana did not follow the exact instructions of a correction in a defamation case decided in August, according to CPJ sources... MORE
A magazine editor in Colombia is facing a prison term after a judge reviewing a complaint against the magazine deemed two published corrections as insufficient, according to the Bogotá-based Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP). In spite of the fact that "Semana" magazine has issued two corrections concerning information it published on allegations about the influence a particular individual has within Colombia's high courts, a judge reviewing a complaint against the magazine has deemed... MORE
Colombian journalist Mario Alberto Puello was freed from captivity on June 19 by members of the National Liberation Army (Ejercito de Liberación Nacional, ELN) guerrilla group. ELN members handed Puello, who was abducted on February 17 in La Guajira department, over to International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) personnel, according to Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP). Puello and two of his companions, Maikol Mendoza y Jhon Romero, were freed in the vicinity of the "El Puentecito... MORE
Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) has called on the authorities to reinforce the protection they are providing to Pedro Cárdenas, the editor of the magazine La Verdad , after two men hit him and threatened him with a gun on June 14 in Bogotá in an attempt to dissuade him from distributing the latest issue in Tolima, a department west of Bogotá. Attempts have been made to intimidate Cárdenas in the past. “Paramilitary groups may have Cárdenas in their sights after La Verdad named four people who... MORE
A Colombian journalist has been threatened and asked not to distribute his magazine in a remote town, according to the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ). On June 14, at 2:20 p.m. (local time) in the national capital, Bogotá, journalist Pedro Antonio Cárdenas was stopped by two men travelling on a motorcycle. After pointing a revolver at him, they threw him to the ground and beat him up, ordering him to stop circulating his magazine in the city of Honda, in Tolima department. The... MORE
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