The arrest of Esteban Vanegas in Medellín is arbitrary and attacks against the press freedom

Vanegas was with another two partners of the newspaper “EL Colombiano”, Sebastián Carvajal y Juan Fernando Rojas, who also were beaten by the police when they were trying to stop their partner detention.

Police agents justified the arrests of Vanegas arguing that he had committed a crime of aggression against the authority. However, the witnesses and videos that were taking by others reporters  shows otherwise, the aggression never existed.

After twelve hours of arrest, Vanegas was released, but the criminal complaint filed by a patrol man was not remove or withdraw.

For FLIP it is very serious that the authorities continue attacking the press in the social protests taking them out of the news events arbitrarily. In 2013 FLIP warned about the lack of guarantees for the press in the social protests. In spite of having spoke with the authorities, the facts continue having place, indeed, most awful. The deprivation of liberty because the exercise of their work is an clear violation against the press freedom.

FLIP recalled that the Special Reporters for Freedom of Expression of the UN and the Commission have emphasized the importance of the work undertaken by journalists covering public demonstrations, "the State must grant the highest level of assurance to fulfill their function. That duty is not limited to grant specific protection measures for communicators. It also includes the obligation to create the conditions necessary to mitigate the risk of the exercise of the profession in those situations".

Additionally, note that "The State has a duty to ensure that journalists and communicators who are doing their work in the context of a public demonstration are not detained, threatened, attacked or limited in any way in their rights to be in exercise of their profession".

In addition, FLIP recalls that in 2012 the Colombian government was condemned by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights in the Case of the journalist Richard Velez, who was assaulted by soldiers while covering the Coca marches in 1996. In that judgment the Court noted that the attacks on the press in the context of social protests will have a chilling effect on other journalists covering public issues.

FLIP considered shameful the recidivism attacks on the press by members of the security forces, especially the police. Remember that in 2013 the main aggressors against journalists were agents of that institution during 2014 and that situation has not changed. The situation is the same, despite the history and  the warnings made by  FLIP.

These facts are presented exactly one year after the attack on the journalist of “Semana’s journal”, Ricardo Calderón, who was doing research on possible corruption in the Army. At the date of this release, FLIP knows no progress in the investigation of this case. Again, a serious assault against the press on the eve of the World Day of Press Freedom, which will have place on May 3.

FLIP calls on the police to those incidents like this that violate freedom of expression do not occur again and punish the officers involved immediate measures within institutions.