MIAMI, Florida (March 2, 2012)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at the legal precedent set in Colombia yesterday with the conviction of journalist Luis Agustín González, fined and ordered to go to jail for the opinions he wrote in a column published in December 2008.
González, editor of the newspaper Cundinamarca Democrática, was found guilty of libel by the Cundinamarca Criminal High Court. He was sentenced to 18 months in prison and ordered to pay a fine equivalent to 17 minimum wages for what was said to be critical comments made in his column titled “No Más” (No More) about former governor Leonor Serrano de Camargo. González had been already been convicted by a lower court in October 2011.
The chair of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gustavo Mohme, declared, “Opinion has been penalized, setting a dangerous precedent in the country that could lead to inhibiting other columnists daily exercise of their democratic right to criticism and dissent.”
Mohme, editor of the Lima, Peru, newspaper La República, added, “This case, as happened recently in Ecuador” (a reference to the President Rafael Correa v. El Universo case) “makes expressing opinion a criminal offense, which is contrary to inter-American legal standards that establish that the reputation of public officials must be ensured by civil penalties.”
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org.
