(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release: IAPA, Andiarios urge protection for Colombian editor, reporters MIAMI, Florida (August 28, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Colombian Newspapers Association (Andiarios) today called on the Attorney General’s Office and Magdalena department officials in the South American nation to act to ensure […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is an IAPA press release:
IAPA, Andiarios urge protection for Colombian editor, reporters
MIAMI, Florida (August 28, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Colombian Newspapers Association (Andiarios) today called on the Attorney General’s Office and Magdalena department officials in the South American nation to act to ensure the safety of Ulilo Acevedo Silva, the editor of the newspaper “Hoy Diario de Magadalena”, and to conduct an immediate investigation into threats he has been receiving.
Acevedo, a member of the IAPA’s Board of Directors and its Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, said in an editorial published on August 25 that he had been receiving death threats and was aware of a plan to attack his newspaper’s plant.
He reported in a note to the IAPA and Andiarios that these threats resulted from “the newspaper’s denunciation of wrongdoing by the rector of the University of Magdalena, Carlos Eduardo Caicedo Omar,” which, he said, led to the Attorney General’s Office ordering the rector’s arrest on charges of irregularities in the performance of his duties as the head of the state university.
Last Thursday thousands of students, apparently encouraged by the now-jailed rector, staged a demonstration in which they threatened to set fire to the newspaper’s building.
As a result of the conflict and the newspaper’s public disclosure of the threats police acted to provide protection for Acevedo and his newspaper plant.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, welcomed this response but insisted that there be an investigation so as to “identify those responsible for the threats and punish them under the full force of the law.”
“Society cannot allow an individual or a group of violent misfits to restrict the freedom and independence of a news outlet to report. If violence against a news medium triumphs, society loses its ability to detect and remain informed on those events and people that threaten development, social peace and democracy,” added Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper “Prensa Libre”.
