(IPYS/IFEX) – Between Monday 22 April and Tuesday 23 April 2002, journalist Daniel Coronell, director of the television news programme Noticias Uno, received four death threats. Three of the threats were directed at the journalist and one targeted his three-year-old daughter. At around the same time as Coronell received the threats, a number of radio […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Between Monday 22 April and Tuesday 23 April 2002, journalist Daniel Coronell, director of the television news programme Noticias Uno, received four death threats. Three of the threats were directed at the journalist and one targeted his three-year-old daughter. At around the same time as Coronell received the threats, a number of radio stations reported on differences of opinion that had emerged between the journalist and presidential candidate Álvaro Uribe, following the airing of an investigation on the television news programme on 21 April.
The first three threatening calls were received between 9:00 a.m. and noon (local time) on Monday 22 April. A male caller insulted the journalist and informed him that he was going to be killed. During one of the calls, received at the offices of the CM& news programme (a private programme broadcast with the permission of Canal Uno, the state television channel), the caller, who disguised his voice, said: “You are a dead man for having stirred up trouble with Álvaro Uribe.” Coronell’s daughter was threatened during a Tuesday 23 April call that the journalist received directly.
The Noticias Uno investigation that sparked the scandal questioned whether Uribe gave his father preferential treatment when the presidential candidate was director of the Civil Aeronautics Department (Aeronáutica Civil). At the time, Uribe had accelerated the granting of a licence for a helicopter that subsequently crashed during an important anti-narcotics operation. According to the investigation, three more planes, which were granted a licence on the same day that the licence for Uribe’s father’s helicopter was granted, also crashed during the same operation.
While being interviewed on the radio, Uribe accused Coronell of being in the service of certain businessmen who supported presidential candidate Horacio Serpa. Uribe noted that these businessmen’s names do not appear on the television programme’s documents and called into question the media outlet’s openness and independence. Uribe further questioned Coronell’s independence and suggested he was close to presidential candidate Noemí Sanin.
Coronell responded by inviting Uribe to come forth and accuse him of any crime that he feels he has committed, instead of resorting to these arguments to discredit the investigation the journalist is carrying out on Uribe and his family. Coronell told IPYS that before the news programme went to air, journalist Ignacio Gomez, who is in charge of the investigation, did all he could to try and get a statement from Uribe. He even offered to broadcast a live interview with Uribe, in case the presidential candidate feared that his comments would be edited before being aired. Nevertheless, Uribe did not respond to these suggestions.
During the radio interview, Uribe also noted that Gomez was a friend of German spy Werner Mauss, about whom questions have emerged, and that the journalist had exonerated the spy in his book. In response, Gomez sent a letter to the presidential candidate’s campaign office, radio station RCN FM and the 6 am 9 am programme broadcast on Caracol (as these media outlets had aired the interview with Uribe). In the letter, Gomez clarified that his book “La última mision de Werner Mauss” (“Werner Mauss’ last mission”) explains that the case of the German is related to conflicts between spy agencies that operate illegally in Colombia.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
– calling on the government to issue a statement condemning the death threats uttered during this pre-electoral period
– urging them to promptly investigate the threats and to immediately set into place procedures to protect the journalist’s safety
Appeals To
Andrés Pastrana Arango
President of the Republic
Carrera 8 No. 7-26
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +571 336 2109 / 286 7937 / 286 7434
E-mail: pastrana@presidencia.gov.co
Luis Camilo Osorio
Attorney General
Diagonal 22-B Nº 5201
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +571 570 2000, ext. 1587
E-mail: contacto@fiscalia.gov.co
Edgardo Maya Villazon
Solicitor General
Carrera 5 No. 15-80
Bogotá, Colombia
Fax: +571 281 7746
E-mail: anticorrupcion@presidencia.gov.co
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
