Miami (October 1, 2013)—The murder of a vendor of the Colombian newspaper Extra was condemned today by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which called on the authorities to solve the crime and ensure the safety of all press employees and sources connected to this newspaper.
José Darío Arenas, the vendor of Extra in the Quindío neighborhood of the town of Caicedonia, Valle del Cauca, was killed on the morning of September 28. Arenas, 31, was calling out the paper’s headlines, reporting on the alleged irregularities of the Caicedonia prison, when he was approached by a hitmen who shot him several times, according to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP).
In addition to being a vendor Arenas occasionally worked as a journalist and was understood to be the person who took the photos and obtained testimonies included in the report on alleged anomalies in the prison, a source in the newspaper said. He also disclosed that Arenas had received an anonymous warning not to publish the story.
The FLIP also said that shortly after the murder, one of the news report sources received a threatening phone call stating that “the first one is already down,” which serves to believe that the motive could be related to the published article.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, expressed his concerns regarding “the increase in violent actions against journalists and media workers” in Colombia, and he asked the authorities to diligently investigate the crime.
In addition to this, the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information’s regional vice chairman for Colombia, José Eustorgio Colmenares, editor of the Cúcuta newspaper La Opinión, said he felt it was “necessary that the government take action to activate protective measures that will guarantee the safety of the media outlet’s employees and its sources.”
Furthermore, on September 11, journalist Édison Alberto Molina was murdered in the town of Puerto Berrío, in Antioquia province.
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.
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