COLOMBIA
In Colombia there is a climate of freedom of the press although there are two threats to this freedom: violence against reporters and judicial restrictions which new social rights in the 1991 Constitution have placed on the media.
Ten journalists have been murdered in the year since the last IAPA Assembly, in Madrid. The attacks on the press during this period were as follows:
October 7, 1992 - German Olano Moreno, a news photographer and vice chairman of the National Photographers Association, was murdered by unidentified persons in Medellin.
November 15, 1992 - Jose Carlos Soto and Cecilia Gonzalez, from Radio Urra, were murdered by a guerrilla group near Valencia, Córdoba.
January 28, 1993 - Jose de la Espriella, former councilman and reporter, was murdered by a pair of motorcycle-riding assassins in Barranquilla. De la Espriella had been the editor of the defunct El Naeional of that city.
January 30, 1993 - Maria del Rosario Arrazola and Plinio Mendoza, reporters from El Tiempo, were warned by the National Liberation Army guerrilla group not to work in areas under their control.
February 9, 1993 - The wife of reporter Hugo Varela Mondrag6n, who was kidnapped and killed on April 21, 1992, reported having received telephoned death threats.
February 11, 1993 - Gerardo Didier Gómez, a columnist, was murdered while driving his car between the cities of Cali and Buga. He was shot by someone on a motorcycle.
March 12, 1993 - Eustorgio Colmenares, editor of the daily La Opini6n, was murdered in the city of Cucuta by a group from the National Liberation Army. The guerrilla group said that this was a warning to all the media for their "misinformation practices."
March 17, 1993 - Martin Alonso Aragón, from Noticiero de las Siete, was kidnapped by members of the Coordinadora Guerrillera.
April 10, 1993 - Jaime Ardila Casamitjana, owner and editor of the evening El Espacio, of Bogota, was kidnapped by guerrillas in Valledupar. He was freed on May 17.
April 19, 1993 - Carlos Lajud Catalan, editor of a news commentary program on Radio ABC, of Barranquilla, was murdered by two individuals who shot him from a motorcycle while he was driving to his radio station.
August 3, 1993 - Nelson de la Rosa Toscano, a news photographer from the daily El Universal, in Cartagena, was murdered by unidentified assailants who shot him two blocks from his home.
August 19, 1993 - Elias Jaimes Castillo, a journalist and lawyer, died in a clinic in Cucuta from gunshot wounds that he received on July 8 from two motorcyclists.
September 3, 1993 - Jose GregoriO Gonzalez, the former mayor of the city of Arauca, was arrested and charged with masterminding the assassination of Henry Rojas Monje, a correspondent of El Tiempo, of Bogota, on December 28, 1991.
September 28, 1993 - Manuel Jose Martinez, a reporter for Radio Super, of Popayan, was murdered by two unidentified men who shot him at the door of his house. The reporter produced a radio news and community service program.
September 29,1993 - Bienvenido Lemos, of Radio Caraeol, was shot to death by a group of unidentified individuals in the city of Buenaventura.
The perpetrators of most of these murders are so far unidentified and unpunished, and none of the killings can be directly attributed to the drug traffiC, which used to be the main source of violence against reporters. However, guerrillas are now the main threat.
Parallel with the climate of violence, which continues to intimidate the reporting and expression of opinion in Colombia, there remains concern about certain legal restrictions, which for two years, with the approval of the new Constitution, have affected freedom of the press in Colombia.
The Agriculture Ministry obtained an injunction against the news director of the Caraeol radio network, and the judge hearing the case dictated the precise terms of the retraction, specifying the hour and the number of times the director himself must read the retraction. This is a direct intervention in the internal management of a media outlet.
The Constitutional Court ordered newspaper cartoonists to "eliminate abuses and exaggerations," which goes against the very nature of a caricature, by its definition exaggerated and irreverent.
In an injunction obtained by a senator against a QAP television news program, the same court ruled that newscasts cannot carry opinions. This ruling attempts to separate the function of informing from that of interpretation and commentary, which goes against the tendency of modern journalism to analyze, particularly in the print press.
Citing the right to privacy, the Superior Court of Barranquilla ordered three newspapers to pay the debts of a popular singer who had been killed in a case that caused public outrage. The papers had carried stories and photos of the singer's extramarital affairs. The newspapers were found to have
ignored a previous court order not to report on the matter.
The ruling was seen as a gag order. Several times retractions have been ordered, even when the parties involved had not sought them. In other cases, the media have not been allowed to defend themselves, thus violating due process.
A magistrate ordered the dailies El Tiempo and La Prensa to retract reports linking Orlando Rueda Argullo to guerrilla groups. Rueda Argullo was later arrested and charged with kidnapping, terrorism and extortion. La Prensa editor Juan Carlos Pastrana, who refused to print the retraction, was sentenced in May to 10 days in jail.
InJuly, Deputy Attorney General Francisco Jose Sintura arraigned El Tiempo for alleged violation of the privacy of a court case, after publication of a series about events at the Envigado prison, from which Pablo Escobar had escaped.
In October, the Congress passed a law which prohibits the media to carry interviews, reports or speeches of a political nature on election day. This is part of an ongoing hostility and animosity of Congressmen toward the media.
Within a worrisome panorama of press restrictions originating from the courts or the legislature, several positive steps by the courts should also be reported.
In May, the Constitutional Court declared it is unreasonable to file lawsuits against columnists, editors or editorialists for opinions they have expressed.
Last October, the same court left without legal grounds the rules of the new Penal Proceeding Code through which judges can allege the violation of the privacy of a court proceeding by the press.
The media cannot be charged for violating the privacy of a court proceeding without full proof. Meanwhile, the Superior Court of Bogota in September ratified the inviolability of the right of privacy of sources.
Finally, it is worth noting that the Colombian Congress is debating the conversion into statute law a presidential decree on "civil unrest," which prohibits the electronic media from broadcasting communiques, declarations and interviews of persons or organizations which are outside the law. The
Communication Media Association (ASOMEDIOS) has said that self regulation, to which the media is committed, is the ideal mechanism for these cases, since the approval of the law would be a grave precedent for the future of the freedom of information in Colombia.
