Colombian radio journalist slain; covered paramilitaries' links to elites
~snip~
Castilla was known for his reports on the activities of Salvatore Mancuso, a local paramilitary boss extradited in 2008 to the United States on drug-trafficking charges, and on Mancuso's ties to powerful business interests in the region, said Rafael Gomez, owner and director of La Voz de Monteria.
Gomez's radio station is a rarity in Monteria: a media outlet unafraid to report in depth on such links.
"We are in the worst location in Colombia," Gomez said. "Nobody dares to say anything. We are the only ones."http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-journalist-killed,0,3572768.story~~~~~The following links may explain why we seldom hear any honest, factual stories from Colombia on it's real political, social environment. Please scan these items, if you have the time:
Self-censorship threatens journalism in Colombia
31.07.2009
As the only media alliance in Colombia, PAN's role is to map out all the organisations and activities that support media and freedom of expression in Colombia to ensure coordination, collaboration and a stronger impact.
Safety a major concern
- Self-censorship is the biggest challenge facing Colombian media today, a result of the lack of physical safety for journalists, weak economic support of media and a deeply rooted culture of secrecy, says Ms. Paola Valderrama.
- Safety continues to be the main concern. Because of the conflict, travelling in the countryside and reporting from different regions can be dangerous. Part of PAN's role as an alliance promoting the rights of journalists, freedom of information and access to information, is to improve the conditions for journalistic practices.
According to a May 2009 report about media in Colombia from Reporters without Borders, the number of murdered journalists has fallen during Alvaro Uribe's seven year presidency, but journalists continue to be forced into exile by paramilitaries. (
http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/docid/49fea98428.html ).
Local journalists are still vulnerable to reprisals from armed groups, wiretapping of their phones and emails and suffer death threats. Self-censorship by journalists is thought to have been a factor in the reduction of murder rate.
More:
http://www.i-m-s.dk/article/self-censorship-threatens-journalism-colombia~~~~~Self-censorship as self-defense
By Anastasia Moloney
Posted Oct 1 2005
At first glance, the city of Barrancabermeja in northern Colombia appears serene. Fisher-men gently wade their boats along the picturesque Rio Magdalena. The locals eat in riverside cafes under colorful, large umbrellas or chat idly on their porches while gently swinging in rocking chairs.
But a closer look reveals that Barrancabermeja is a battleground between leftist guerrillas and right-wing paramilitaries in an area where state authority is weak. The town is a lethal melting point of Colombia's internal armed conflict. It is in this context of violence that some 50 journalists work in a perilous existence in the city's 14 media outlets.
In Colombia, the taboo subjects that journalists avoid covering in fear of reprisal vary in each region. In Barrancabermeja, reporting about the strict dress codes paramilitaries use as a form of social control is off-limits. Other sensitive topics include the theft of oil from the city's oil refinery, allegedly by paramilitaries working in collusion with state agents. Most journalists consider such issues too hot to handle and fear that those they incriminate and denounce will later seek retribution.
Such fears are well-founded. During the past 10 years, 31 journalists have been murdered in Colombia for carrying out their jobs, and dozens have been forced into exile, according to the New York-based press freedom organization, Committee for the Protection of Journalists.
But last year was the first in decades in which no journalist was killed or kidnapped in Colombia. Despite this decline, the press continues to be muzzled, and scores of journalists are threatened and harassed by the paramilitaries and guerrilla groups. Acts of sabotage against media installations, including the recent bombing of the RCN news network studios in Cali last February, show that the press continues to be the target of violent attacks.
Carlos Lauria, Americas program director at the CPJ says, “Despite recent improvements, Colombia still remains one of the most hostile countries in the Americas for the press.”
Last April, in response to a spate of threats against journalists in Barrancabermeja, a delegation of local and international press freedom organizations visited the city on a fact-finding mission. They concluded that “reporters lived in a climate of intimidation that inhibits the freedom of press.” Journalists were increasingly relying on official government press releases as their only source, they said, and more alarmingly, are practicing self-censorship as a form of protection.
“The decrease in attacks against journalists reflects a custom of self-censorship, especially in the country's interior,” explains Lauria. More:
http://www.globaljournalist.org/stories/2005/10/01/self-censorship-as-self-defense~~~~~~
http://www.cpj.org.nyud.net:8090/Briefings/2005/DA_fall05/colombia/colombia_DA_title.gifMONTERIA, Colombia
The main suspect in Orlando Benítez’s murder was never in doubt. Benítez, a lawmaker here in the northwestern province of Córdoba, was preparing to run for mayor of a municipality controlled for years by Diego Murillo Bejarano, a paramilitary chief known as “Don Berna.” Murillo, once a close associate of drug lord Pablo Escobar, hadn’t given the campaign his blessing.
The local and national press reported briefly on a police announcement of the hit, in which five men gunned down Benítez, his sister, and his driver on April 10. But the press didn’t mention Murillo or subject the triple murder to any significant investigation. “No journalist tried to check into what everyone suspected,” says Gustavo Santiago, news director of the Caracol Radio affiliate in Montería, the provincial capital. “It could have cost you your life.”
It takes mettle to be a journalist in this Andean nation riven for decades by a war that pits government and paramilitary forces against leftist guerrillas, by international syndicates that enable Colombia to supply most of the world’s cocaine and much of its heroin, and by an array of underworld organizations that control contraband, extort from businesses, and manipulate public officials.
In this case, news outlets feared reprisals not only from Murillo, who insists he had nothing to do with the assassination, but from President Alvaro Uribe’s government, which had suspended arrest warrants for the warlord as part of negotiations to demobilize paramilitaries. The talks had dragged on for more than two years, lately in a paramilitary haven the government set up just a few miles from the murder. Naming Murillo as the suspect would have focused attention on violations of a “ceasefire” the paramilitaries declared for the talks. And it would have fueled international criticism of Uribe-backed legislation awarding judicial leniency to paramilitaries who disarm.
Two weeks after the assassination, authorities finally broke the silence, announcing a fresh arrest warrant for Murillo. Even then, few news outlets explored the paramilitary chief's alleged role in any depth. One fear, Santiago notes, was that journalists would end up having to testify against him.
Such hands-off treatment is pervasive in Colombia, a Committee to Protect Journalists investigation has found. Interviews with three dozen news professionals show that media outlets and journalists across the country routinely censor themselves in fear of physical retaliation from all sides in the nation's conflict.
At least 30 Colombian journalists have been murdered over the past decade for their work. "We love our profession, but we're human," says Carmen Rosa Pabón, news director of Voz de Cinaruco, the Caracol Radio affiliate in the northeastern city of Arauca. "Threats and killings make us afraid. To survive, we have to limit ourselves."
On some occasions, verified news is suppressed shortly before broadcast or publication. In other cases, probing journalists are killed, detained, or forced to flee. More often, investigations never even get started. The issues shortchanged are human rights abuses, armed conflict, political corruption, drug trafficking, and links from officials to illegal armed groups. Journalists end up focusing instead on "pleasant topics like fauna and flora," says Angel María León, news chief of Arauca's RCN Radio affiliate.
Communities pay a high price. "Any region without investigative journalism is going to have impunity," says Jaime Vides Feria of Radio Caracolí in Sincelejo, a provincial capital near the Caribbean coast.
And the self-censorship has international dimensions. The Uribe administration, for example, is pushing for U.S. and European funding of a $130 million plan to reintegrate the demobilized paramilitaries into society. But foreign taxpayers can hardly judge whether the plan might bring peace if the press doesn't dare investigate drug trafficking by paramilitaries or their civilian attacks.
More:
http://cpj.org/reports/2005/10/colombia-da-fall-05.php 
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