IFJ Condemns ‘Unacceptable' Threats against Journalists in Colombia

[Judi Lynn]

18 February 2011
IFJ Condemns ‘Unacceptable' Threats against Journalists in Colombia

The International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) today asked the authorities in Colombia to take very seriously recent threats made by an armed group called The Black Eagles against a group of journalists, including members of the IFJ affiliate in the country and human rights organisations which the group has declared military targets.

"We strongly condemn the threats against these journalists and urge the Colombian government to bring those who made them to justice," said Jim Boumelha, IFJ President. "For far too long our colleagues have been subjected to unrelenting intimidation, persecution and threats to their lives. This must stop."

A document signed by the "Central Command of the Black Eagles", an extreme right wing paramilitary group in Colombia, was sent to a number of journalists, warning them that they are legitimate targets and that their lives are in danger. The targeted journalists include Eduardo Marquez, President of the Federación Colombiana de Periodistas (FECOLPER), an IFJ affiliate, Hollman Morris, Daniel Coronell, Marcos Perales Mendoza and Claudia Julieta Duque. There are also some human rights organisations which are declared military targets by the paramilitaries.

The group states that " time has come to exterminate and eliminate all the people and organisations that try to pass as human rights defenders and even try to infiltrate international NGOs, journalists (...). We will find you at your offices, at the houses you live in (...). We are watching you and right now consider yourself dead".

More:
http://www.ifj.org/en/articles/ifj-condemns-unacceptable-threats-against-journalists-in-colombia

(My bolding.)