Colombia

Nelson Carvajal Carvajal, Radio Sur, August 26, 2008 

Original case: April 14, 1998

Colombia's attorney general ordered the arrest of Carlos Augusto Rojas Ortiz, president of the local Assembly in Huila province, for masterminding Carvajal's murder in 1998, according to local news reports.

New York, August 22, 2008—Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez called for a criminal investigation of Daniel Coronell on Thursday, alleging that the journalist broke the law by not immediately disclosing a videotaped interview that allegedly links the administration to a bribery scandal. The Committee to Protect Journalists urged Colombian authorities today to dismiss Uribe’s request.

We issued the following statement today in response to Colombian President Álvaro Uribe Vélez' request for a criminal investigation of Colombian journalist Daniel Coronell for allegedly committing a crime by failing to disclose accusations in a videotaped interview that a former lawmaker was bribed in exchange for her vote to approve Uribe's reelection.

"We reject President Uribe's request to investigate Daniel Coronell," said CPJ's Americas Senior Program Coordinator, Carlos Lauría. "We believe the motivation behind Uribe's decision is linked to Coronell's criticism of the Colombian government. We call on the Attorney General to dismiss Uribe's request." 

We issued the following statement today after learning that a criminal defamation suit had been brought against Colombian writer and journalist Alfredo Molano:

"We are alarmed by the criminal defamation suit brought by a politically influential family against Alfredo Molano over a column in the daily El Espectador," said Carlos Lauria, CPJ's Americas senior program coordinator. "Criminally prosecuting a journalist sends a chilling message to all Colombian reporters, and is out of step with the region's growing legal consensus that defamation is a civil not a criminal issue."

A couple of weeks ago, the Colombian government admitted that during a daring hostage rescue mission--code-named Operation Check--one of its soldiers had disguised himself as a member of the Red Cross. Then last week, Juan Manuel Santos, Colombia's defense minister, divulged that two of the soldiers had taken on the mantle of journalists. One posed as a cameraman, the other as a reporter. Both purported to be from an actual Caracas-based regional network called Telesur. They had gone so far as to take acting lessons in preparation.

Santos told a July 23 press conference in Washington that the use of the Telesur logo in the July 2 rescue of Ingrid Betancourt and 14 other hostages was "an insignificant detail given the magnitude" of the operation. CPJ disagrees. While we recognize that such missions require stealth and perhaps unconventional tactics, posing as a journalist in this kind of situation is far from insignificant. As outlined in a letter to Santos yesterday, here's why:

July 29, 2008

Juan Manuel Santos
Minister of Defense
Carrera 54 No. 26-25 CAN
Bogotá, Colombia

Dear Mr. Santos:

Following the successful July 2 hostage rescue operation that ended with the release of 15 captives held by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), we are writing to express our concern about the fact that security forces impersonated journalists during the mission. We fear that such impersonations could endanger the work of the already beleaguered Colombian media.

CPJ's Impunity Index ranks countries where killers of journalists go free

New York, April 30, 2008 -- Democracies from Colombia to India and Russia to the Philippines are among the worst countries in the world at prosecuting journalists' killers according to the Impunity Index, a list of countries compiled by the Committee to Protect Journalists where governments have consistently failed to solve journalists' murders.