(RSF/IFEX) – On 30 April 2002, RSF deplored death threats made against two TV journalists and expressed concern about a car bomb discovered near the offices of a leading Bogotá newspaper on 28 April. In a letter to President Andrés Pastrana, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard lamented that “since the beginning of the year, press freedom […]
(RSF/IFEX) – On 30 April 2002, RSF deplored death threats made against two TV journalists and expressed concern about a car bomb discovered near the offices of a leading Bogotá newspaper on 28 April. In a letter to President Andrés Pastrana, RSF Secretary-General Robert Ménard lamented that “since the beginning of the year, press freedom in Colombia has sharply declined as tension increases because of the presidential election and attacks by FARC (Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia) guerillas become more frequent.”
Ménard called for an investigation into death threats made against Daniel Coronell, head of the “Noticias Uno” news programme, broadcast on the Canal Uno television station, and Ignacio Gomez, the programme’s chief investigator. RSF stressed that it was “important for media diversity” in Colombia that “Noticias Uno” continue its work. The organisation noted that four of the country’s eight major TV news programmes had disappeared in recent years because of an increase in competition. RSF added that “El Tiempo” is the fourth Colombian media outlet to be targeted in an attack since the beginning of the year.
RSF also urged the authorities to investigate how a car bomb came to be parked a few yards from the offices of the “El Tiempo” daily newspaper in Bogotá. The city’s police chief, Hector Castro, said the 40 kg of explosives had not been set to go off, nor did they seem to have been aimed at the newspaper. He noted that the car appeared to have been abandoned as a result of police pressure. According to Castro, the explosives belonged to the FARC’s urban militias and were to be used in further bomb attacks by the group. However, the Colombian army said in a statement that the car bomb was in fact aimed at the newspaper. Some observers told RSF that the bomb may have been an attempt to intimidate the newspaper’s staff. Over the past week, several bombs attributed to the FARC have been defused by police. The secret service carried out some 40 raids in the Bogotá region, arrested 17 suspected FARC members and seized three and a half tonnes of explosives.
Three other physical attacks against media outlets have been carried out since the beginning of the year. On 30 January, a car bomb went off near the main offices of the Caracol TV station. No one was hurt in the explosion (see IFEX alerts of 31 and 30 January 2002). Twelve people were killed on 7 April when a bomb exploded near the offices of Radio Súper, in the town of Villavicencio, southeast of Bogotá. Aides of independent presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe Vélez said the radio had been targeted by the FARC after it broadcast Uribe’s remarks, but the radio station firmly denied this (see IFEX alerts of 22 and 11 April 2002). On 12 April, the offices of RCN TV, located west of Bogotá, were damaged when a bomb exploded nearby (see IFEX alert of 16 April 2002).
On 22 and 23 April, Canal Uno’s Coronell received four anonymous death threats at his office and home. The caller threatened to kill the journalist’s three-year-old daughter, who has since been
sent abroad. The calls came after “Noticias Uno” broadcast an item suggesting that presidential candidate Uribe had links with drug lords. The report said a helicopter seized during a 1984
anti-drug operation had belonged to a company that Uribe’s father co-owned. In 1981, the country’s civil aviation department, then headed by his son, granted the aircraft an operating licence within 24 hours, an unusually quick turnaround time. Uribe reacted by trying to discredit Coronell. The journalist in turn said that the station’s investigations chief, Gomez, had been unable to get a comment from Uribe before the programme went on air and had even invited the presidential candidate to appear live during the broadcast. Gomez was also threatened several times two weeks before the broadcast. He refused, however, to make a firm link between the threats and the programme, stating that they may have been connected to other sensitive subjects he had investigated.
