New York, January 31, 2000 – CPJ is gravely concerned for the safety of Guillermo Cortés, director of “Hora Cero,” a nightly television news program broadcast on Canal A in Bogotá. Cortés was kidnapped on January 22 and has not been heard from since. Local journalists informed CPJ that six armed men kidnapped Cortés, known…
New York, December 3, 1999 — Pablo Emilio Medina Motta, a cameraman with the regional television station, TV Garzón, was killed by multiple shots to the head and back when more than 100 leftist guerrillas stormed the town of Gigante in Huila department. Six other people died and twenty were wounded in the attack. Medina…
New York, November 30, 1999 — CPJ is deeply concerned about the November 28 murder of cameramen Alberto Sánchez Tovar and Luis Alberto Rincón Solano outside the town of El Playón, in the north-eastern department of Santander. On the morning of November 28, the two cameramen left Bucaramanga, capital of Santander Department, to shoot a…
New York, November 1, 1999 — Leftist guerrillas abducted seven journalists whom they had invited to cover alleged atrocities committed by paramilitary forces against local farmers. The seven journalists were intercepted on October 29 by members of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC). This is the second Colombian media kidnapping in less than a…
Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its outrage over Sunday’s bomb attack on the Cali office of the Bogotá-based daily El Tiempo. We urge you ensure that this attack on press freedom is fully investigated and its authors duly punished.
New York, November 17, 1999 — In a letter sent to Colombian President Andrés Pastrana on November 17, CPJ protested the November 14 bomb attack on the Cali offices of the daily El Tiempo. [Click here to read the letter.] CPJ also expressed concern for the deteriorating press freedom climate and urged the president to…
New York, November 15, 1999 — On Sunday, November 14, the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) released the last of seven journalists they had kidnapped on Wednesday, November 10. The journalists were on their way to cover a right-wing paramilitary attack in Atánquez, in the northern department of Cesar. Five of the seven…
New York, November 11, 1999 CPJ is deeply concerned for the safety of seven Colombian journalists and their driver, who were kidnapped by leftist guerrillas yesterday while traveling to cover a right-wing paramilitary attack in Atánquez, in the northern department of Cesar. Local sources informed CPJ that the journalists left the Cesar capital Valledupar…
New York, November 4, 1999 — Reuters stringer Henry Romero, kidnapped by the Colombian National Liberation Army (ELN) on October 26 as punishment for having published a photo of a rebel commander’s unmasked face, was freed near the town of Suárez. He reached his hometown of Cali at 9:30 p.m. Wednesday evening after walking and…
New York, November 3, 1999 — Seven cameramen and reporters kidnapped by the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) were released yesterday. The journalists were set free in the afternoon of November 2 near Barrancabermeja, an important oil-refining center. Concern for the journalists’ safety had been running high since heavy fighting erupted on October 16…