As well as ’Agencia de Reporteros Sin Fronteras’, the targets of the threats made by the paramilitary group “Bloque Capital - Águilas Negras” were the TV stations Canal Capital and Telesur, and Nelson Arnesto, the creator of the news programme Patio Bonito Al Día.
This statement was originally published on rsf.org on 2 December 2014.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the death threats that a paramilitary group has been making against journalists with various Colombian news media in the past two days. At the same time, it clarifies that it has no link to one of the targeted media, called ‘Agencia de Reporteros Sin Fronteras’.
As well as ‘Agencia de Reporteros Sin Fronteras’, the targets of the threats made by the paramilitary group “Bloque Capital – Águilas Negras” yesterday and the day before were the TV stations Canal Capital and Telesur, and Nelson Arnesto, the creator of the news programme Patio Bonito Al Día.
Reporters Without Borders condemns the fact that Colombia’s criminal paramilitary groups are still able to sow terror with complete impunity. Their continuing existence – a result of the failure of the demobilization process – is a curse on Colombian society.
We urge the authorities to investigate the threats, and guarantee the security of the threatened media and journalists. Even though this was not a direct threat against Reporters Without Borders, we urge the authorities to provide protection to our correspondent in Colombia, Fabiola León Posada.
Reporters Without Borders, a Paris-based NGO that defends freedom of information, is known as Reporteros Sin Fronteras in Spanish but it has no relation with the Colombian news analysis website named in the threats.
With 56 journalists killed since 2000, Colombia is the Western Hemisphere’s second deadliest country for media personnel, while the Águilas Negras continue to be one of Colombia’s leading “Predators of Press Freedom.”
Colombia is ranked 126th out of 180 countries in the 2014 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index .
