Colombia Reports celebrates its very first birthday this week. We’re
working too hard so there is no time for cake, but let’s at least take
a look at how the past year went. What happened so far and what is
going to happen in the near future?
Colombia Reports, also known as simply ‘CR’, was founded by Dutch trouble-maker and media developer Adriaan Alsema. This European left his (relatively) steady job in the Netherlands to start a whole new adventure in Medellín, Colombia. His idea was to set up a new medium that would offer fair and neutral reports on what exactly is going on in this country.
So, that’s exactly what he did. He started off with a few volunteers, who just as passionately helped to expand the site as much as they could. Once people started noticing the site, more contributors offered their services and now, we have a complete team of specialists working on each section of the site. (Obviously new contributors are always welcome, just send an e-mail if interested).
Those specialists are mostly located in Colombia, in cities such as Bogotá, Medellín and Barranquilla. Some are American, English, Dutch and Colombian. We even have two Canadians on board.
When Adriaan founded this site, he never expected it to grow as fast as it did. We received many positive comments on the project and some hate mail. Many people feel a connection with Colombia and want to know all the latest news, but their Spanish is limited. So, here we are to solve the problem. Besides, we don’t just offer news but also the best in travel information, columns, events and nightlife. Starting today, our birthday, we even offer a completely new classifieds section, free of charge.
Colombia Reports aims to be a neutral medium. This is extremely important to us. Our goal is to report things as they are, without looking at it from a particular angle. We have a firm belief in freedom of press, and in the last year we have built contacts with several Colombian journalists who believe the same. Press liberty is of extreme importance in any country, but especially in a country like Colombia where complicated armed conflicts continue to dominate headlines. We want to make sure that we don’t tell you what is good and what is bad, since we believe that our readers know how to make that judgment themselves.
Working at Colombia Reports isn’t all serious though. Adriaan has established a particular ‘coolness’ test which people need to pass before they will be even considered for a job at our site. The only person who has never passed this test is Adriaan himself, since he created it. But, we’ll just give him the benefit of the doubt…
In the coming year, we will continue to work hard in order to offer you the most up-to-date news, whether it is about the armed conflict, economy, entertainment, travel or sports, we will always be your primary English source for Colombian news.