According to the IAPAs Rapid Response Unit in
Colombia, the Committee to Protect Journalists, a Colombian governmental agency
dedicated to helping journalists at risk, received 15 requests for protection
in May, while other journalists were kidnapped, murdered or fled into exile.
The Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael
Molina, stated that "the solving of murders, the finding of the origin
of threats and kidnappings, as well as the punishment of those responsible,
is imperative in order to ensure that the free exercise of journalism without
fear can serve as a catalyst for opinion making in a democratic society."
"The continuous reports of threats, murders and acts of harassment against the press are possible because they have been unable to punish those responsible for such violence," asserted Molina, director of Ahora magazine in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic.
Molina referred to several cases in the last few weeks, among them that of journalist Carlos Pulgarín, who on May 14 fled the country for the third time because of death threats, allegedly by members of the Army. Threats against the journalist have even continued in the country where he and his family have sought refuge.
Pulgarín was teaching classes at La Sabana University in Bogota before fleeing the country. Previously, he was a correspondent for the newspaper El Tiempo, province of Cordoba, northwest Colombia, but was transferred to Bogota because of threats.
Another similar case is that of Carlos Lajud, a journalist from CITY TV television station, who also fled the country recently because of death threats. Lajud is son of journalist Carlos Lajud Catalán, murdered on April 19, 1993, and whose case was investigated by the IAPA and presented to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights.
The journalist Ramón Vásquez, assistant Nidia Alvarez and driver Vladimir Rebolledo, from Hoy Diario newspaper in Magdalena, in northern Colombia, where detained on May 16 by the Armed Revolutionary Forces (FARC). The guerrillas released the assistant one day later, but held the driver and the journalist captive until May 28.
On May 14, Víctor Omar Acosta was murdered
in the town of Yumbo, in Valle del Cauca province, in the southeast part of
the country. According to police, an unidentified person shot him in the head
and legs. Acosta worked for Occidente and El País newspapers, Todelar
radio station, and was press secretary for the Mayors Office, but although
he had not practiced journalism for the past two years, his family believes
that his death could be related to charges he made against local corruption.
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