(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 20 December 2002 RSF press release: “Arauca: news in danger” Report on freedom of expression in the department of Arauca A report published today details the threats, restrictions and pressures on the press in the eastern department of Arauca. The latter was recently declared a “rehabilitation and consolidation zone” […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 20 December 2002 RSF press release:
“Arauca: news in danger”
Report on freedom of expression in the department of Arauca
A report published today details the threats, restrictions and pressures on the press in the eastern department of Arauca. The latter was recently declared a “rehabilitation and consolidation zone” by President Álvaro Uribe’s administration.
Entitled “Arauca: news in danger”, the report describes both the attacks against the press by armed groups outside the law as well as “the army’s constant monitoring of the content of the news carried by the local media.” It also makes recommendations to the authorities, armed groups, news media and civil society organisations designed to promote and protect a right that is violated almost daily in Arauca – the right to inform and be informed without any kind of censorship or intimidation.
The report was compiled by a fact-finding mission that went to Arauca on 28-29 November 2002 to assess freedom of expression in the region. The mission consisted of representatives from Reporters without Borders, the Latin American organization Press and Society Institute (Instituto Prensa y Sociedad, IPYS), the Colombian organizations Press Freedom Foundation (Fundacion para la Libertad de Prensa, FLIP) and the Antonio Nariño Project (Proyecto Antonio Nariño), and the rapid response unit of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
The mission was prompted by the recent murder of Efraín Varela, the region’s most influential journalist, and by reports from journalists in Arauca that they have been threatened. The fact that three of the department’s municipalities have been declared a rehabilitation zone was an additional reason.
Local journalists said Varela’s murder “radically changed the way journalism is practised in the department.” The mission found that, since his death, the people of Arauca have been receiving much less news. “When asked to rate the degree of freedom of expression they enjoy in their work on a scale from one (no freedom) to ten (total freedom), journalists in Arauca responded with an average rating of four,” the report concludes.
The full report is available on the following websites: www.rsf.org, www.ipyspe.org.pe, www.flip.org.co, www.fnpi.org and www.sipiapa.org.
