Courage, journalism and oppression in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

Courage, journalism and oppression in Colombia
Submitted by Simon Barrow on 9 April 2011 - 12:13pm

Some 23 journalists have been threatened with imprisonments, killings and disappearances in Colombia over the past three months. Fifty-seven have been on a 'hit list' during the past 12 months. There have been 1,400 attacks against media workers. The reason? They are exposing government complicity in massive human rights abuses in the country, and challenging the silence and complicity around this.

The reality of life under a 'security state' has been spelt out in graphic and moving terms by Claudia Julieta Duque at the National Union of Journalists (NUJ) annual delegate meetin in Southport on Saturday 9 April - which is also, as it happens, the 62nd anniversary of the execution of Dietrich Bonhoeffer in Nazi Germany. Acting and speaking for truth and justice is truly and life and death issue.

Last year Claudia told the International Women's Media Foundation (http://www.iwmf.org/), "“I knew they assassinated journalists. Since the 1980s, there have been 140 journalists killed in Colombia. Clearly I knew it was dangerous, yet I never expected to experience this en carne propia in the flesh. I never thought I would be the victim of so many difficult situations.”

In the two decades since Duque began her career as an investigative reporter, the 49-year-old winner of the 2010 Courage in Journalism Award has been abducted, robbed and threatened with death.

More:
http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/14531