Where is the U.S. press on the subject of threatened Colombian journalists?

Where is the U.S. press on the subject of threatened Colombian journalists?
by Latin America News Review
By Justin Delacour
Latin America News Review
November 9, 2007

While an alternative U.S. weekly has published an excellent feature story about the Colombian government's complicity in forcing some reporters to leave the country, there appears to be a cover-up of the story in the mainstream U.S. press. Given that one Colombian reporter under threat --Gonzalo Guillen-- writes for a U.S. publication (Miami's El Nuevo Herald), it is rather mind-boggling that none of the major U.S. dailies have reported about the subject. On October 5, the Associated Press penned a short report about Guillen's imminent departure from Colombia, but a Lexis-Nexis search reveals that no major U.S. newspaper picked up AP's report. The New York Times devoted one measly sentence to the subject, buried in the eighth paragraph of a report about a different subject altogether.

Only the Miami New Times' piece puts the story into context. Ever since Alvaro Uribe launched his candidacy for Colombia's presidency in 2001, Colombian reporters such as Guillen who have investigated the Colombian leader's alleged drug ties have been denounced by Uribe and then threatened by unknown parties.

A good number of journalists have fled Colombia. Fernando Garavito, a columnist for the Colombian daily El Espectador, was forced into exile in 2002 for having written about the sensitive subject of Uribe's alleged drug ties. The Miami New Times reports that Daniel Coronell, another journalist of the Colombian weekly Semana, was also just forced to flee the country for writing about Uribe's alleged relations with the late drug kingpin Pablo Escobar.

Just as Uribe's complicity in the repression of journalists is longstanding, so too is the U.S. press' cover-up of the story. On the few occasions that AP has written about Uribe's ham-fisted approach to critical journalists, the most influential U.S. dailies have not followed up on the story. On April 17, 2006, AP reported that Uribe gave a "stern lecture" to Semana editor Alejandro Santos that was "considered by groups including Human Rights Watch to be a frightening attempt to muzzle the press in a country where journalism is already a very dangerous profession." Yet a Lexis-Nexis search reveals that the "prestige press" simply ignored the story. Despite the fact that the New York Times, Washington Post, Los Angeles Times and Houston Chronicle have correspondents who report from Colombia, none of the four papers highlighted the dangers posed to journalists by Uribe's harsh words.

Given the U.S. press' stated commitment to the freedom of the press, it is astounding that the press has failed to report about this subject, much less criticize the Uribe government for its ham-fisted approach to critical Colombian journalists.

http://www.answerbag.com/article/Where+is+the+U.S.+press+on+the+subject+of+threatened+Colombian+journalists%3F/51e04931-d130-46c3-e96c-65ac95a0605b/subject

Plus the Coup TV supporters. Not a peep.