On January 21, journalist Ruth Morris and freelance photographer, Scott Dalton, working on assignment for the Los Angeles Times, were kidnapped by the National Liberation Army (ELN) in Tame, one of the municipalities in the Rehabilitation Zone of Arauca Department. Yesterday, the ELN announced the kidnapping in a press release that stated, “they will be freed when political and military conditions improve.”
The kidnapping took place during the visit of an IAPA delegation to Colombia during which the organization received the commitment of President Alvaro Uribe and Minister of the Interior and Justice, Fernando Londoño, not to pass any law that would restrict the work of national and foreign press in conflict zones.
The Chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, condemned the act and said that “what they have really kidnapped here is freedom of the press”, and stated that they are using journalists like propaganda. “The free movement of journalists cannot be subject to the country’s political conditions or the interpretation each faction has of them,” said Molina.
He added that despite this incident, the IAPA maintains its position, which it expressed to the Colombian government this week, that no restrictions be imposed in conflict zones for the free movement of journalists and that the media and journalists should use their criteria for news coverage in danger zones. “This is not just a plea to the Government but to all those involved in the conflict, since freedom of movement, freedom of the press and information, are essential for all Colombians and citizens of the world to know what is happening in that country.”
The kidnapping of Morris and Dalton took place when the paramilitary group,
United Self-Defenses of Colombua (AUC), freed American reporters Robert Young
Pelton, Marta Wedeven, and Megan Smaker, after their week-long captivity in
the jungles of Chocó, on the Panamanian border.
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