COLOMBIA

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No journalist was killed because of his or her work. However, court rulings concerning links between legislators and members of paramilitary groups have caused a wave of threats in Sucre, Magdalena and Valle del Cauca provinces. Several media outlets on the Caribbean Coast reported threats and intimidation by paramilitary forces, even as the forces were involved in peace negotiations with the government. On two occasions, unknown people purchased 40 percent of the copies of the newspaper El Meridiano de Sucre to prevent it from circulating. On February 9, some 31 newspapers affiliated with the Association of Colombian Newspapers (Andiaros) published a joint editorial denouncing abuses by judges and their failure to comply with Article 20 of the Constitution, which outlaws censorship. The editorials referred to a series of court rulings that prevented the newspaper El Heraldo and six media outlets in San Andrés from publishing news about two corruption cases. Complaints by journalists against police officers have increased. Two indigenous journalists were arrested; four were attacked; and the newspaper El Diario del Otún was pressured not to published some photographs. Twenty years after the assassination of Guillermo Cano (December 7, 1986) and five years after that of Orlando Sierra (January 20, 2002), the media questioned the impunity for crimes against journalists. On Sunday, January 21, El Heraldo and the civic group Protransparencia pushed a report on the alleged links between the company Métodos y Sistemas and paramilitary groups in the region, and about the apparent diversion of public resources to finance the election campaign of the city’s mayor, Guillermo Hoenigsberg Bornacelly. Métodos y Sistemas, which had been hired by the local government to collect taxes in the city, filed a complaint against El Heraldo and the organization Protransparencia for allegedly harming its reputation. Barranquilla Circuit Judge Hernando Estrada Peña temporarily prohibited the newspaper from publishing information about the topic. But after a huge controversy arose in the country, the court dismissed the complaint and ruled in favor of El Heraldo. On February 5, Alfonso Gómez Nieto, a criminal judge in San Andrés ordered several local media outlets not to report on a judicial order reopening a corruption investigation against Hernán Nisimblat Álvarez. The order was directed at radio stations RCN Radio, Caracol Radio, La Voz de Las Islas, Radio Leda Internacional, Radio Impacto Estéreo and the weekly The Archipelago Press. Other important developments in this period: Otoniel Sánchez of local channel CNC of Cartago, Valle del Cauca, had to leave the area after unknown persons fired on his residence several times. Sánchez said he had received several death threats after publishing a report about misuse of the municipal skating rink. The day before, he had received a package with three bullets of the same caliber and a threatening message. Rubiel Lis Velasco and Griseldino Yafué Guetoto of the indigenous radio station Uxwal Nasa Yuwe Estéreo were illegally detained by police officers in Caldono municipality in Cauca province. Two people who identified themselves as employees of the Communications Ministry put them into a pickup truck and took them to the police station in Popayán. They were told that there was an arrest warrant for them for the crimes of rebellion and collaboration with the FARC guerrillas. The journalists were detained for nine days. Unknown people pressured newspaper vendors for El Meridiano de Sucre to sell them all the copies distributed in Sincelejo, capital of Sucre province. The October 3 edition has published news of the arrests of several legislators for connections to paramilitary forces. El Diario del Otún reported that police officers of Pereira, capital of Risaralda province, had told them to destroy pictures taken during the removal of a street vendor. Armed police officers entered the newspaper’s office with the intention of destroying photographs that been had taken. In November, Olga Brú Polo of the daily El Meridiano de Sucre of Sincelejo in Sucre province was threatened when she published several reports on the local government and Planning Secretary Carlos Hoyos Martínez. Also in Sucre, Robinson Ruz Ruz, editor of “Noticiero del Medio Día” of radio station Radio Piragua, received death threats after reporting about connections between paramilitary forces and politicians. A senator reported dropouts of the audio during a televised broadcast of sessions of Congress during a debate with Foreign Minister María Consuleo Araújo, sister of Senators Álvaro Araújo, who is currently in jail because of alleged links to paramilitary forces. In October, some senators had said that the same thing happened when the television signal from Canal Institutional in the provinces of Sucre and Cordoba was suspended just as a debate in Congress on the same topic was beginning. On December 21, Donald Montaño, a cameraman for channel Caracol was attacked by three Traffic Police officers while covering a march of motorcycle taxi drivers in Valledupar, capital of Cesar province. In January, the national attorney general’s office revoked the detention order against Colombian journalist Freddy Muñoz Altamiranda, a correspondent of the Venezuelan channel Telesur. Muñoz was detained on November 19, 2006, on charges of rebellion and terrorism. The decision was made by the prosecutor’s office at the Bolivar court after reviewing the detention order from the Third Specialized Prosecutor’s Office in Cartagena. The order was revoked because of lack of evidence. The new order was made possible by the publication of photographs showing Muñoz in a camouflage uniform, with a rifle at his side, along with a group of alleged FARC guerrillas. The journalist, who authorities said is outside the country, sent a statement casting doubt on the authenticity of the photograph. On January 22, an administrative judge in Quindio sentenced a newspaper in Armenia to pay about 40 million pesos for publishing news of an apparent swindle based on a special press release by the 8th Brigade of the Colombian Army. Paradoxically, neither the brigade, the source of the information, nor any other public agency that had been sued was sentenced. On February 20, an attack on the biweekly La Razón, apparently directed at its editor, Edgar Buitrago Rico, was foiled. He was not injured, thanks to the action of one of his bodyguards. The police said the attack was not aimed at the journalist. The event occurred at the newspaper’s office minutes after Buitrago arrived. Because of threats against him in 2004,Buitrago has protection provided by the Human Rights Office of the Interior and Justice Ministry. After the unsuccessful attack, local police increased security for the journalist. On February 14, photographer José David Martinez of the daily Vanguardia Liberal was handcuffed and beaten by police officials while covering the failed attack on a public official. The police accused him of interfering with the crime scene. John Jairo Herrera, a cameraman for the channel Enlace Televisión, was also beaten for filming the attack on his colleague. A court in Bogotá began a contempt proceeding against Salud Hernández-Mora after she refused to obey an order to correct an opinion column published in El Tiempo about Judge Jaime Araújo. During this meeting it was reported that Darío Arismendi, the director of Caracol Radio, has left the country as a result of threats from the FARC. Also, journalists are fleeing the Caribbean coastal area en masse due to threats from illicit groups, and a criminal complaint has been filed against El Heraldo editor Gustavo Bell.

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