Latin America & the Caribbean

Colombia

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

Reporters Without Borders Description:

The frequency of killings of journalists, traditionally high in a country embroiled in a civil war for nearly half a century, has declined since the start of Alvaro Uribe’s presidency in 2002. Three journalists were nonetheless murdered in 2009 and two more have been killed since the start of 2010.

President Uribe does not like being criticised and lets the media know it. Journalists who do not find favour with the president are often pilloried by him as “accomplices of terrorism” or “in the pay of the FARC” (the leftist guerrilla group), regardless of the fact that these public comments put them in danger. Each time Uribe has fired of one of his verbal volleys at them, such respected journalists as Daniel Coronell, the news director of the public TV station Canal Uno, or Carlos Lozano, the editor of the communist weekly Voz, have received death threats from paramilitary groups.

Read more on RSF’s site…

President Álvaro Uribe Vélez ended his two terms in office with a decidedly mixed press freedom record. CPJ research charted a drop in lethal violence during his administration: Eight reporters were killed in direct relation to their work in his first two years in office, while six died over the remaining six years of his tenure. The government has cited a journalist protection program and an improved overall security climate as reasons.

Read more on CPJ’s site...

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