On 27 November, Media Defence’s partner Fundación para la Libertad de Prensa (FLIP) was awarded journalist of the year at Premios Simón Bolivar. This award was granted in recognition of FLIP’s work defending press freedom in Colombia.
Colombia has for a long time been a difficult country for journalists to work in. Reporters without Borders rank Colombia at 129 in its Press Freedom Index. As FLIP has highlighted, the last two years have seen extreme violence used against the press: 419 attacks have been reported by FLIP throughout 2019 and 477 were reported in 2018. This is an alarming increase to the 310 cases reported in 2017. These attacks include the murder of five journalists and media workers in 2018 and 2019.
A group of journalists, including Nobel Prize winner Gabriel García Márquez founded FLIP in 1996 to address the dangers for the press in the country. During these 23 years, they have advocated for better conditions, monitored attacks and provided assistance to thousands of journalists. Their aid has included litigation at national level and before the Inter American human rights system.
Over the last year, FLIP has made an enormous contribution to combatting self-censorship in Colombia through their projects Liga Contra el Silencio, Pauta Visible and Frontera Cautiva. The jury at the Premios Simón Bolivar, aware of that work and of FLIP’s entire role throughout its 23 years of existence, awarded FLIP with a prize that is usually given to individual journalists.
W,e at Media Defence, feel proud of our partners and wish to congratulate them for this award. We are also sure that they will keep on doing impactful work in defending the press in Colombia.
Recent News
Russian disinformation: a weapon in its war on Ukraine
Lawmakers, academics and citizens are becoming increasingly aware of the threat posed by disinformation and malinformation. ‘Disinformation’ refers to falsehoods spread deliberately to stoke distrust or promote an agenda. It is a widespread issue, overshadowing elections everywhere from Brazil to the USA, fuelling hate speech, such as in India, and impacting stock prices around the […]
TOHAV & The Fight for Freedom of Expression in Turkey – by Esma Yasar
This article was written by Esma Yasar, a Kurdish lawyer working for Media Defence’s partner organisation TOHAV. Esma Yasar took part in Media Defence’s fellowship programme, which hosts human rights lawyers from our funded partner organisations all over the world. Freedom of Expression and Press Freedom in Turkey Turkey is one of the most restrictive […]
[NOW CLOSED] We’re recruiting: Human Resources and Operations Manager
We are looking for a talented Human Resources and Operations Manager to coordinate our Human Resources, Information Technology and Office Management. About Media Defence Media Defence is a charity that helps media to defend their rights. We support independent media, journalists and citizen journalists who are under legal threat by making sure that lawyers are […]