Estefanía Colmenares.La opinion
Estefanía Colmenares, the director of La Opinión de Cúcuta, the main newspaper in the Norte de Santander department, has reported that she received threats in WhatsApp messages from an unknown number on Wednesday afternoon, offering a bounty on her head and her death . They declared a military objective. “Although the reasons for this threat are unknown, we consider it important to make it public as a mechanism of denial and to reaffirm our commitment to journalism, to the truth and to investigations to combat corruption,” wrote Colmenares in his social networks . which has received an avalanche of solidarity from colleagues, media and public figures.
The newspaper of the capital, on the border with Venezuela, recalled this Thursday that in recent weeks it has followed up on the complaints that have become known about irregularities related to the hospitalization of the former mayor Ramiro Suárez Corzo, convicted of murder, who continues to project a long shadow about the politics of Cucuteño. Various sources indicate that he took part in the campaign for the October regional elections from the 11th floor of the Erasmo Meoz University Hospital (Huem), where he remains detained.
“From this hospital, as we told him, the convicted former mayor directed the political campaign,” said journalist Daniel Coronell on Wednesday, who reported that prosecutors prevented Suárez Corzo’s transfer to Bogota at the last moment. “Or rather, several political campaigns for MPs, city councilors and those from Leonardo Jácome for mayor of Cúcuta and William Villamizar for the government of Norte de Santander,” he explained in his daily report on W Radio.
Although the reasons for this threat are unknown, we believe it is important to make it public as a mechanism of denial and to reaffirm our commitment to journalism, to the truth and to anti-corruption investigations.…
— Estefania Colmenares (@estcol) September 7, 2023
The threat to Estefanía Colmenares “is even more worrying when taking into account the context of the upcoming regional elections, since this high level of violence against the press could encourage media self-censorship and affect the information that citizens receive about candidates and campaigns.” Guidelines,” the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) said in a statement rejecting these intimidating messages, as did the Office of the Ombudsman.
“This environment of violence, pressure and hostility towards the regional press is an indication of the risk faced by journalists reporting on electoral issues,” adds FLIP, emphasizing that “clear and timely communication between the Ministry of …” is necessary The Interior, the public armed forces, the National Protection Unit (UNP) and the Public Prosecutor’s Office must be called upon to address this risk, based on institutional support strategies at all levels for journalistic work and including the implementation of protective measures for particular endangered journalists.”
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Over the past six years, the foundation has documented at least 10 threats and other attacks against La Opinión journalists. Norte de Santander, located on a turbulent border, is one of the places most affected by the armed conflict of more than half a century that Colombia is trying to put behind it, and the Cúcuta newspaper has been the victim of violence more than once. In 1993, the newspaper’s director and founder, Eustorgio Colmenares Baptista, Estefanía’s grandfather, was murdered by the ELN guerrillas in a crime declared a crime against humanity.
During the 2019 elections, FLIP reported 44 press freedom violations, including 12 threats against journalists. This has implications for the functioning of democracy, as the Election Observation Mission warns in its risk map report: “It is important to ensure the journalistic activity of the media during this period, since the work of the press, under conditions of justice, contributes to information plurality. This plurality is necessary in every democracy so that citizens have the greatest possible amount of information available to them at the time of political deliberations,” explains the NGO.
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