(FLIP/IFEX) – Death threats against “Noticias Uno” television news programme director Daniel Coronell, his wife, television announcer María Cristina Uribe, and their daughter have forced the journalist and his family to leave the country. Although Coronell provided evidence that he himself obtained regarding the probable source of the attacks, investigations by the Prosecutor General’s Office […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – Death threats against “Noticias Uno” television news programme director Daniel Coronell, his wife, television announcer María Cristina Uribe, and their daughter have forced the journalist and his family to leave the country. Although Coronell provided evidence that he himself obtained regarding the probable source of the attacks, investigations by the Prosecutor General’s Office (Fiscalía) have yet to provide any concrete results.
The first threats in 2005 were made on 16 May. Coronell received two funeral wreaths at the former “Noticias Uno” offices. One of them “lamented” his death and the other, those of his wife and daughter.
Later he received e-mailed threats, which he traced in order to determine their source. In a column published on 24 June in “Semana” magazine, he publicly complained that the messages came from the personal computer of former senator Carlos Náder. The Prosecutor General’s Office (Fiscalía) summoned Náder for questioning about the incidents. So far, the proceedings are still at the stage of preliminary investigation.
The latest attacks against the journalist, which made him decide to leave the country, occurred in June, when he received several threatening phone calls. The journalist told FLIP that in one of them he was told they were going to return his daughter to him cut into pieces.
Stanford University, near San Francisco, has awarded Coronell a special scholarship in recognition of his situation and conduct as a journalist. Although he will be leaving Colombia, Coronell told FLIP that he will continue writing his opinion column for “Semana” and working with “Noticias Uno”.
