(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 May 2001 IAPA press release: IAPA concerned over alarming incidents of violence in Colombia Miami (23 May 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the attempt to bomb the offices of the Colombian weekly publication Voz and expressed its concern over the death threats directed […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 23 May 2001 IAPA press release:
IAPA concerned over alarming incidents of violence in Colombia
Miami (23 May 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) has condemned the attempt to bomb the offices of the Colombian weekly publication Voz and expressed its concern over the death threats directed against four journalists of the Bogotá daily El Tiempo. These are the latest incidents of violence against the press in the country.
A bomb found in a truck parked outside the offices of the Communist Party newspaper Voz was defused on Monday 21 May in Bogotá. There were 250 kilograms of dynamite in the vehicle, hidden among a load of fruit. Voz editor Carlos Lozano, member of a governmental commission to curb paramilitarism, believes that the far-right group United Self Defence Groups of Colombia (Autodefensas Unidas de Colombia) was responsible for the thwarted attack.
The weekly has been targeted in the past and on 27 April Flavio Bedoya, correspondent for Voz in Tumaco, department of Nariño, on Colombia’s Pacific Coast, was assassinated.
“These incidents set a negative precedent as they are a serious attempt to silence the press in Colombia. It is important that the government do all it can to curb the violence against journalists and the media,” noted Danilo Arbilla, IAPA president, of the Montevideo, Uruguay publication Búsqueda.
In a separate incident, journalists Marta Elvira Soto, Sergio Ocampo, Orlando Gamboa and Carlos Pulgarín of the daily El Tiempo received death threats. Both Soto and Gamboa are part of the newspaper’s Investigative Unit and are known for their articles on paramilitarism, the guerrillas and corruption, and in-depth reports on matters of national interest.
Gamboa, editor of El Tiempo Caribe, which is published in Barranquilla, in Colombia’s Caribbean region, has been receiving threats since December 2000, apparently from supporters of a local politician. Pulgarín, who previously fled the country for the same reason, received threats that may be linked to his reports on attacks on press freedom in Colombia.
“We are alarmed over the situation of insecurity being faced by the Colombian public in general and the press in particular. The press has become the favourite target of the armed actors in Colombia,” Arbilla remarked.
Arbilla recalled that in a letter sent in April to the leaders of Western hemispheric countries, assembled for the Summit of the Americas in Quebec City, Canada, the IAPA, jointly with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), urged them to take action to combat threats to press freedom.
In the joint letter, which was signed by IAPA President Arbilla and IACHR President Claudio Grossman, a number of proposals were put forth, including a call to “repudiate the assassination of and all physical violence directed against journalists and urge the authorities to comply with their duty to prevent, investigate and punish crimes and provide due compensation.”
