While relentlessly seeking justice, journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima has brought the issue of sexual violence against women in Colombia into the public consciousness. A historic ruling in her case, in 2021, set a precedent for the protection of women journalists.
After the main suspect in her case was released and rearrested in the space of one week, Bedoya Lima said: I have dried my tears and now I am inviting all my fellow journalists to join me in giving a voice to all the other women who deserve for their cases to be heard.
Jineth Bedoya Lima is an award-winning journalist and advocate for women’s issues who was born in Colombia in 1974. She is well known for her reporting on Colombia’s paramilitary groups, as well as for the abductions and threats she suffered in 2000 and 2003 in the course of her professional work. Since her abduction, torture and rape in 2000 her case became synonymous with the impunity and corruption that is entrenched in the Colombian judicial system.
On the day of her attack, 25 May 2000, Bedoya was a reporter for El Espectador working on a story about violence at a maximum-security prison involving state officials and paramilitary groups. While at the prison, under what would turn out to be false pretenses, to interview a paramilitary leader, she was abducted, tortured and raped by three paramilitaries. As they tortured her, Bedoya’s attackers told her, “We are sending a message to the press in Colombia.” The abduction took place in broad daylight and, it is suspected, with the complicity of local law enforcement.
During the years since her abduction, Bedoya has tirelessly fought to bring the issue of sexual violence against women into the public consciousness. She has continued to report on Colombia’s paramilitary conflict and history, only now armed bodyguards accompany her round-the-clock.
In 2000 she received the International Press Freedom Award from Canadian Journalists for Free Expression, and in 2001 she was awarded the Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women’s Media Foundation. Bedoya was given the Secretary of State’s International Women of Courage Award in 2012.
The Federal Attorney General’s decision in September 2014 to officially recognize the abuses against her as crimes against humanity was welcomed, but, on 1 June 2015, the same office decided to drop the charges against one of her alleged attackers, Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco. He was re-arrested just a few days later.
Local IFEX member in Colombia, the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), whose lawyers represent Bedoya and had filed a petition on her case with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in 2011, tweeted that they hoped this would be the first step on the road to finally ending the years of impunity Bedoya had endured.
Despite the passage of so much time, the legal processes in the case have advanced at half speed, owing to a negligent judicial system and a lack of political will on the part of the State when it comes to investigating and punishing those responsible for the crimes.
However, her case saw important new developments in 2019. On 16 January, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights announced that it had approved its Merits Report. The Commission concluded that the state of Colombia was responsible for the violation of her right to life, personal integrity, personal liberties, private life, freedom of expression, and equality before the law and judicial guarantees.
The Commission recommended, among other measures, that Colombia conduct a complete, impartial, and effective investigation, within a reasonable period of time, to establish all of the circumstances surrounding the crimes committed against the journalist, including the possible participation of State agents, in order to guarantee the safety of Bedoya and her family. Another recommendation was that Colombia adopt effective protection measures to guarantee the safety of women journalists who are exposed to special risks in the practice of their profession.
In May 2019, 19 years after the attack, two men were convicted. A court in Bogotá sentenced Jesús Emiro Pereira Rivera to 40 years and six months in prison for kidnapping, rape, and torture. The court also sentenced Alejandro Cárdenas Orozco to 30 years in prison for assault; he had already been sentenced to 11 years in prison in 2016 on charges of kidnapping and torture in the case. Both men appealed their sentences. In the decision, the court found that other third parties could be held responsible, including a former high-ranking police official, and forwarded copies of the case to the prosecutor’s office for further investigation.
On 16 July 2019, after concluding that the state of Colombia had not complied with the recommendations pointed out in its Merits Report, the Inter-American Commission decided to present Bedoya’s case to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights.
On 28 October that same year, the Superior Tribunal of Bogota confirmed the sentences.
While the decision was welcomed, Bedoya continued to be targeted; in August 2019, the same day on which IAPA announced it would award her its 2019 Press Freedom Grand Prize, she received threatening calls and menacing messages. On 30 April 2020 she was awarded the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize.
Over a year later, the Inter-American Court declared the State of Colombia responsible for violating Bedoya’s rights to personal integrity, personal liberty, honor and dignity, freedom of thought and expression, and for failing their duty of care to Bedoya as a woman journalist.
The Court’s ruling was historic, as it underlines the use of sexual violence as a method of silencing women journalists. It also sets an important precedent in international human rights standards to protect women journalists who have been victims of sexual violence. The ruling also determined that the Colombian State should provide a series of reparations, including compensation, implementing effective policy and systemic measures to protect women journalists, and establishing an awareness-raising programme on the issue of gender-based violence as inspired by Bedoya’s campaign.]
Illustration by Florian Nicolle
If you enjoyed reading this piece, check out this short video about Jineth’s fight for justice, that we co-produced earlier this year with IFEX member FLIP (Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa), to mark Colombia’s Day of the Journalist.
