Journalists in Colombia are frequently victims to threats and intimidation, the country’s Prosecutor General told Associated Press.
“Just when information comes out, for example about a corruption case, there immediately is a threat and — worse still — cases of intimidation,” Guillermo Mendoza said in an interview published in magazine Semana.
According to the Prosecutor General, the murder and intimidation of journalists are no systematic practice, but generally are “the response of a person; politicians associated with criminal organizations, who end up being blown the whistle on (by journalists) and then commit the murder.”
Mendoza told AP his office is working together with several journalist rights organizations to improve the investigation into the unsolved murders of 27 journalists and improve its response to the threats and intimidation of press.