December 9th, 2014
[es] – [pt] – [fr] – [de] – [it]
On December 4th, at 9.37 am, a death threat was sent to the mail accounts of different social organizations and alternative media signed by the Bloque Capital part of the paramilitary group Águilas Negras.
In the document, twelve organizations and fourteen journalists whose names are mentioned, are declared military objective. It is argued that they are all “terrorists guided by the FARC-ELN politics” and they are all told to “cease all activities […] in towns and cities with this issue about alternative and communitarian media”, pointing out that “the propaganda would be silenced with bullets”. In the letter, the organizations are given until January 1st to leave the cities where they conduct their journalistic activities.
We -the collectives and journalists threatened in the pamphlet- point out that this is part of a persecution campaign against independent press. Similar threats were directed on December 1st to Canal Capital, Telesur and the Agencia Reporteros sin Fronteras, and the following day to Nelson Armesto Chávez, director of Patio Bonito al Día, an act that is making him consider closing his media.
We consider that all this intimidation an attempt to silence the labour of independent journalists and human rights defenders and their work with communities all over the country. This act represent the ongoing State persecution policy against those who express opinions that differ from the acceptable for the big powers that govern Colombia’s destiny. This policy also accuses social organizations of being in alliance with “terrorism” or being “enemies of progress” or enemies of the National Armed Forces and National Police.
In this context, the paramilitary has been merely one more instrument of this repression policy, a tool of terror that, articulated with State agents, has left millions of victims while the State is unable to guarantee the human rights and has no intention of safeguard the freedom of expression of the vast number of threatened and persecuted journalists.
We declare that not this nor any other threat will impede us to fulfill our tasks of reporting the truth and the defence of the human rights. The threats do not frighten us, do not isolate us, they unite us in the defence of the freedom of expression, the liberty of the press and the right of the Colombian people to free and quality information, with no censorship nor self-censorship.
Because the Colombian state has the constitutional duty to grant free, truthful press committed with the reality of the country, we demand:
1. The Attorney General, to investigate and find the material and intellectual responsible of the acts and prosecute them.
2. The Ombudsman, to investigate the possible participation of state agents and members of the National Armed Forces and National Police in the acts, and if this is the case, that they are prosecuted and sanctioned according to the law.
3. The National Government, to take urgent measures in order to preserve life and integrity of the threatened journalists and their families. To grant the necessary guarantees regarding the liberty of press and freedom of expression, according to the Article 20 of the Colombian Constitution and the Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights.
4. The journalist and freedom of expression organizations -Federación Colombiana de Periodistas (Fecolper), Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) and Reporters without borders (RSF)-, to join this denounce and to influence the respective state bodies in order to safeguard life, integrity and human rights of the threatened journalists and media.
5. The Colombian and human rights and social organizations of the world, to support the threatened journalists and media, demanding of the Colombian state the fulfilment of its constitutional duty to protect and to offer the conditions for their communicative labour.
Signed
Collectives and threatened media:
Casa de la Comunicación de Techotiva.
Colectivo Brecha.
Colombia Informa.
Contagio Radio.
Dejando Huella Haciendo Memoria.
El Macarenazoo.
El Rebelde.
El Salmón Urbano.
El Turbión.
Kino Rama.
Reporte Colombia.
Trochando sin Fronteras.
Threatened journalists
Andrés Gómez.
Camila Ramírez.
Carlos Castaño.
Ernesto Che Mercado Jones.
Leandro Murillo.
Luis Alberto Castaño.
Milena Galvis.
Nelson Lombana Silva.
Omar Vera.
Oscar Castaño.
Ricardo Murcia.
Silvia Oviedo.
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