IN A DEVASTATING YEAR FOR COLOMBIA, journalists were murdered, assaulted, threatened, and kidnapped. Many fled into exile. With the peace process that began in 1999 largely moribund, a nearly four-decade conflict that pits two major leftist guerrilla groups against the army and right-wing paramilitary forces continued to escalate throughout the year. All the warring factions…
Bogotá, July 3, 2001 — Colombian radio reporter Pablo Emilio Parra Castañeda was murdered with two shots to the head in central Tolima Department on June 27, according to local press reports. Parra, 50, was the founder and head of the community radio station Planadas Cultural Estéreo in the town of Planadas. He was also…
New York, January 4, 2001 — Of the 24 journalists killed for their work in 2000, according to CPJ research, at least 16 were murdered, most of those in countries where assassins have learned they can kill journalists with impunity. This figure is down from 1999, when CPJ found that 34 journalists were killed for…
Bogotá, November 16, 2000 — National Liberation Army (ELN) guerrilla fighters released Colombian television journalist Carlos Armando Uribe on November 9, a week after kidnapping him in central Tolima province. The guerrillas continue to hold his colleague, TV producer Jorge Otalora.
New York, October 11, 2000 — Guerrilla forces from the National Liberation Army (ELN) released reporter Jaime Horacio Arango and photographer Jesús Abad Colorado on October 8, two days after abducting them at a roadblock in the central department of Antioquia, according to local reports and CPJ sources.
Your Excellency: The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the lack of progress in the prosecutor general’s investigation into the kidnapping and torture of Jineth Bedoya Lima, a noted investigative reporter with the Bogotá-based daily El Espectador.