Foundation for Press Freedom – FLIP

(FLIP/IFEX) – Guillermo Bravo Vera, a journalist and director of the economic analysis programme “Hechos y Cifras”, broadcast on the Alpevisión television station, in Neiva, southwestern Colombia, was assassinated in his home on the night of 28 April 2003. “He was in the living room working on the programme when he was shot. The front […]

(FLIP/IFEX) – Early in the morning of 29 April 2003, journalist Jaime Rengifo Revero was assassinated. The incident occurred in the city of Maicao, Rioacha, northern Colombia, near the Venezuelan border. For the last three years, the 48-year-old journalist had been living at Maicao’s Venecia hotel. The man who killed him checked in to the […]

(FLIP/IFEX) – José Emeterio Rivas, aged 44, of the Calor Estéreo radio station, was killed on the night of 6 April 2003, on the road between Barrancabermeja, Norte de Santander, and Bucaramanga, Santander, in northeastern Colombia. Rivas’ case had been taken up by the Interior and Justice Ministry’s protection programme for journalists since January 2001, […]

(RSF/FLIP/IPYS/IFEX) – The following is an 18 March 2003 joint RSF, FLIP and IPYS press release: Journalist murdered while receiving government protection The murder of journalist Luis Eduardo Alfonso while he was supposedly receiving government protection on 18 March in the eastern city of Arauca is the subject of a joint condemnation by the Bogotá-based […]

(FLIP/IFEX)- Gladys Barajas, president of the Colombian Photojournalists Circle for the last five years, has been receiving death threats since mid-February 2003. The threats have arrived via telephone, e-mail and letters. In one of these messages, an unidentified male voices told Barajas that she had ten days to leave the country. The death threats began […]

(FLIP/IFEX) – The following is a 20 February 2003 FLIP press release: Diagnosis of Press Freedom in Colombia – January 2003 Six journalists kidnapped, three threatened and three cases of journalists’ work being obstructed were documented in January 2003. As the year began, the media and journalists faced difficulties in their efforts to circulate information […]

(FLIP/IFEX) – On 8 February 2003, photojournalist Herminso Ruiz, of the weekly “El Espectador”, was beaten by Metropolitan Police officers while covering the bomb attack on the El Nogal club, in northern Bogotá. According to the latest official figures, the attack left 33 people dead and 157 wounded. The photographer arrived at the scene in […]

(FLIP/IPYS/IFEX) – On 28 January 2003, an RCN Television crew and a freelance photographer were released near Tame, Arauca department. They were kept in captivity for 38 hours by guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia, FARC). According to police and RCN Television executives, the guerrillas stole the journalists’ […]