09feb10

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Journalists still in danger

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The Day of the Journalist that Colombia celebrates today will inevitably be overshadowed by the fact that press freedom is making no progress. Despite government boasts about "successful" measures for protecting the media, endangered journalists insist that they are not any safer and this will not change until the president takes a clear position.

Paradoxically, the government has become one of the biggest threats to the media, which continue to suffer from the effects of measures taken by the Department for Security Administration (DAS) - an intelligence agency overseen by the president's office - which developed a manual for spying, threatening, intimidate and discrediting "troublesome" journalists.

The targets of a DAS unit called Strategic Intelligence Group 3 (G-3) included journalists Hollman Morris and Claudia Julieta Duque, who were spied on and threatened and who were the victims of smear attempts, some of them by President Álvaro Uribe himself. Duque was benefitting from an interior ministry protection programme until she realised her bodyguards were passing information about her on to the DAS.

Both say there is nothing to celebrate and a lot to complain about. The prosecutor-general's department has evidence of the president's role in spying and reprisals. The DAS received presidential orders to treat critical journalists as the "allies of terrorism." Documents were found that show that G-3 spied on more than 300 people including journalists critical of the government.

As a result of scandals involving the DAS, four of its five chiefs have had to stand down during Uribe's presidency because of allegations of illegal spying, political persecution and collusion with paramilitary groups (providing them with lists of people to be murdered).

These lists included the names of at least 10 journalists, who were seriously affected as result. Morris and Duque say they and their families continue to be in danger. Reporters Without Borders supports their view that only judicial action and a clear directive from the president would be able to improve the security situation for them and their colleagues. Reporters Without Borders calls for a response from the government and for progress in the investigations into serious violations of freedom of expression. A wide range of media, including online media, are affected by censorship. The fact that elections are due to be held soon makes the situation all the more disturbing.

[Source: From The Old, Bogota, 09Feb10]

Informes sobre libertad de Prensa en Colombia

This document has been published on 19Feb10 by the Equipo Nizkor and Derechos Human Rights. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.