Mayor of Medellin Pressured the Media to Obstruct a Publication on Sexual Violence

The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) rejects the pressure from Medellín's mayor, Daniel Quintero Calle, and of people close to the leader against W Radio radio station and El Espectador’s newspaper journalistic teams. FLIP was able to document that Quintero personally pressured media leaders and pointed out female journalists on being opposed to his government policy to evade questions about matters on which he must be held accountable.

In events related to this situation, municipal administration officials tried to force national and local media to improve the image of the mayor in exchange for payments on advertisement. Officers from Telemedellín TV channel asked W Radio to rectify a true publication, and that the media also agreed to sign and publish a joint statement with Telemedellín for disseminating as certain a situation that did not correspond to reality.

In an act of journalistic integrity, Caracol Radio (a company of which the W Radio is a part) emphatically rejected the aspirations of the mayor and his officers to censor the press, backed its female reporters in the face of the accusations of the leader, declared the offer for advertisement as an unacceptable blackmail, and refused to appear in a press release that sought to disseminate erroneous information to cover up what happened. For its part, the director of El Espectador newspaper did not give up to the judicial pressures announced by Quintero, and indicated that he should communicate with the female journalists who had questions to ask him and not with him as director.

Stigmatizing Statements to Journalists to Avoid his Duty to Provide Answers on Matters within his Competence

During the last week, a W Radio press team has been documenting complaints from women pointing to Quintero Calle of having committed sexual violence. The news reporting included contrasting the complaints of the two women with the mayor of Medellín. From that moment on, pressure began against the media investigating the issue and its sources.

Isabel Escobar, a journalist with W Radio Medellín, communicated with the Mayoralty of Medellín and its Secretary of Communications, Juan José Aux, and he replied that they needed two days to give an answer. Prior to offering his version, Quintero contacted Johana Fuentes, W Radio's deputy editor, and assured her that these allegations were a political attack and that he would only be on the air if the media had other testimonies to support the complaint.

Pressure to Media Directors from the Status of Mayor of Medellín for Personal Purposes

After Quintero's communications with W Radio’s female reporters, the leader contacted Caracol Radio's president to try to obstruct the publication. The mayor of Medellín reiterated the accusations on the female journalists as opponents of his government, and on having political interests on release of the story. Faced with this situation, the media supported the female journalists.

Despite pressure from the mayor of Medellín, the media decided to publish the complaints of the two women but, without further explanation, one of the affected women decided not to respond to the live interview. So far it is not known whether the mayor or mayor's officers interfered with this decision, but FLIP is aware that a person close to the mayor made contact with the source, and made reference to W Radio’s female journalists on events which by that time were only knew to the journalists and the source.

Then, Mariángela Urbina and Viviana Bohórquez, journalists of Las Igualadas project at El Espectador newspaper, resumed the investigation and contacted Quintero on June 19 to find out his version. The leader did not respond to the questions, but did contact Fidel Cano, director of El Espectador newspaper, to persuade him about the publication. Cano referred him to answer the questions Mariángela and Viviana had for him. The Mayor announced that he would leave everything to his lawyer, and that they could be subject to legal action if the publication affected his reputation.

Attempt to Use Official Advertisement Funds for Personal Purposes

In view of W Radio's refusal to suspend the publication, on June the 18th officers of Telemedellín (media agency of the mayor's office) contacted Caracol Radio to offer it a five million Colombian pesos advertisement contract in which it was intended to include the commitment of the media to make two interviews with Daniel Quintero highlighting the family side of the mayor as a father. The management of Caracol Radio Medellín rejected the offer on the grounds that the company does not enter into such advertising contracts. In an interview with W Radio the mayor assured that no one on his team was going to be fired for what happened: “No, no, definitely not, this is absurd. I take care of my people, I love my people, I have a good team, it is a team of young people, very young, yes, but we are all learning here (...) if there was a mistake in Telemedellín, it will be corrected and be will move forward”.

For FLIP, it is unacceptable for the mayor to hide in a learning curve that does not exempt no one from complying with the law, since on May the 20th FLIP offered a workshop on the uses of official advertising and on the prohibition of the use of the official advertisement as a censorship mechanism, in which the team of the Communications Department of Medellín took part. Nine mayor's officials attended the workshop, including Juan Felipe Upegui, who was one of those directly involved in the blackmail attempt through the advertisement payment to ensure a favorable treatment for the mayor in Caracol Radio. In addition to the workshop exercises, a good practice guide on the use of official advertising was eventually shared with the officials.

Request from Telemedellín to Misrepresent What Happened

Once the W Radio published that the “Mayor’s Office of Medellín offered advertisement in the midst of complaints against Daniel Quintero,” Telemedellín’s officials asked the media to rectify a truthful story and also to agree to sign a joint press release to cover up the seriousness of the events and to make the censorship attempt to be seen as a common communication error. The media refused, and Telemedellín published a confusing statement, which was not due to what happened either.

Only until the time the mayor's office exhausted all options to try to censor the press, the mayor finally agreed to give an interview to W Radio.

Unauthorized Access into the Accounts of Journalists on Social Networks

Between Tuesday the 23rd and Wednesday the 24th of June, Viviana Bohórquez, Juan David Ortiz and Isabel Escobar - journalists who have been covering these events - reported to FLIP on notifications of access to their twitter accounts where unauthorized logins from Antioquia were noticed. Attacks that occur against journalists who have been covering the complaints against mayor Quintero as their common denominator, and that happen in parallel with all these attempts by the mayor and his officials to censor the press during the last week. Similarly, journalist Ana Cristina Restrepo also warned of an atypical operation in her e-mail account, in which the arrival in time of her usual column in El Colombiano newspaper in which she expressed her opinion on the complaints against Quintero was frustrated.

These acts increase concerns about guarantees on journalistic activity in Medellín and on the activation of invasive actions against journalists who are covering these complaints.

An Administration that Recursively Evades the Social Control of Media and Deploys Public Officials to Address a Matter that is Unrelated to their Work in the Mayor's Office

FLIP estimates that at least twenty officials among mayor's advisers, the communications secretary, the press chief, officers of Telemedellín and their respective work teams have been having the time they are paid with public resources to attend to a matter that although concerns Daniel Quintero, does not involve the Mayor's Office of Medellín, and therefore the use of public resources is questionable for matters not related to the role for which they work in the municipal administration.

If this exaggerated deployment of officials has served anything, it is to delay and hinder the answers to legitimate questions that journalists from different local and national media have. A handful of officials, who far from making it easier for the mayor's office responses to arrive more efficiently and in a timely manner to the press, seem to be in charge of distracting, evading, and delaying the responses of the municipal government and Quintero himself.

For FLIP, this leads to two scenarios: Either there is no control of information (an unlikely scenario in such a large and robust administration), or there is a deliberate intention not to respond to those who exercise social control over public topics from the media. Mayor's office officers manage the expectation of a response for the purpose of delaying the publications.

In the documentation of this case, FLIP was able to corroborate the situation described by journalists. The Foundation tried to contact the mayor, but it was not possible. For this reason, at the closing of this press release, FLIP publicly asks some questions so that these can be included when Mayor Quintero considers answering them.

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FLIP expresses its concern about these pressures, because a diligent exercise in the journalistic role, as it is to contrast information with sources, cannot turn into a timely scenario for public officials to try to exert pressure to prevent the publication of investigations that may affect them.

FLIP requires Daniel Quintero Calle to comply with its obligation to ensure press freedom. This implies: (i) to refrain from making stigmatizing statements to journalists who question him, (ii) to allow timely access to public information in accordance with Law 1712 of 2014, (iii) to prohibit the use of pressure on the media and journalists through official advertisement in all the entities under his charge, and to sanction in an exemplary fashion whoever does so; and (iv) to publicly reject violence against the press that occurs within the municipality under his charge, especially that aimed against journalists who have criticized him or his management.

FLIP announces that it will follow up this case, in particular to monitor that there is no future retaliation through official advertisement and/or actions that may individually affect the job stability of journalists who have followed up on these complaints.

In the absence of corrective measures and sanctions from the mayor's office, FLIP requests the Attorney General’s Office of the Nation to investigate what has happened in order to determine the responsibility of the officials of  Medellín’s government in the face of these pressures against the press, to ensure that the corresponding disciplinary sanctions are proportional to the gravity of what is denounced here.

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Questions that Could not be Asked to Mayor Daniel Quintero:

• What were the communications that were made from the mayor's office, and what was the purpose of the calls to media leaders? Why does he not answer journalists' questions and, instead, quickly and insistently turns to media leaders?
  
  
• What is the basis of the constant accusations against journalists as opposition to his government policy, that were conveyed on at least two occasions to the directors of Caracol Radio and W Radio? What reaction did you expect from your interlocutors when you gave these stigmatizing labels against the female reporters?
  
  
• What kind of judicial actions against El Espectador newspaper did you refer to in your communication with Fidel Cano? How do you explain the announcement of a judicial action on an unpublished content? Are you aware of judicial harassment restrictions on the press when these are triggered from positions with public responsibilities?
  
  
• On the understanding that the allegations made on you are not related to your role as mayor, and that personally affect you, how do you justify the deployment of public officials to deal with a personal matter?
  
  
• Article 10 of the Anti-Corruption Statute reads: “The use of official advertising, or any other mechanism for the dissemination of official programs and policies for the promotion of public servants, political parties or candidates, or that make use of their voice, image, name, symbol, logo or any other identifiable element that could lead to confusion is prohibited". Could you explain how your administration guarantees compliance with this law and imposes sanctions to those who skip this obligation?
  
  
• What is the commitment of the Mayor´s Office of Medellín to guarantee the journalistic work of the media that are critical to the policy of the municipal government? How do you feel that four journalists who have followed up on complaints against you report accesses to their Twitter accounts or abnormal situations with their digital communications?
  
  
• What are the policies carried out by the Mayor's Office of Medellín for the assignment of official advertisement contracts?
  
  
• What are the corrective measures that the Mayor's Office of Medellín will take to punish the officers responsible for proposing an official advertisement contract to Caracol Radio, bearing in mind that you assure that this was not a guideline of the Mayor's Office?

 

 *This release was updated at 12:12 pm on June 25.