Codina Pérez, a journalist with more than 25 years’ experience, was killed yesterday in Santa Marta in the northern province of Magdalena as she was leaving her home at 7:00 a.m. for the Central Hospital where she worked on weekdays and on Saturdays hosted a radio program. Two hitmen riding a motorcycle ambushed her and shot her four times.
Expressing repudiation of the crime, Rafael Molina, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, declared that “the victim’s family members and those of more than 100 journalists murdered in Colombia in the last 15 years are waiting for a response and concrete action on the part of the authorities so that the perpetrators and those behind the murders are duly punished and do not continue to go free.”
In her Saturday radio show, broadcast by Radio Rodadero of the Todelar network, Codina Pérez provided opinion and coverage of local events. She was also associated with the Magdalena District Health Union, of which she was general secretary until a year ago.
The IAPA’s Molina said that guaranteeing a free press and the safety of reporters was a duty of democratic societies. “We note that in Colombia, as in other Western Hemisphere countries, journalists are facings risks for which they are ill-equipped and in some cases lose their lives,” he said.
He announced that as part of an IAPA program to combat impunity and prevent further crimes against journalists the organization next week will hold its first training course for reporters on working in hazardous environments.
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