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Telesur correspondent wrongly detained for "rebellion and terrorism"
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Datum nieuwsfeit: 21-11-2006 |
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Bron: Reporters Without Borders |
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Reporters Without Borders
Colombia21 November 2006
Telesur correspondent wrongly detained for "rebellion and terrorism"
Reporters Without Borders has protested against the arrest and
questioning in Bogota of Freddy Muñoz, correspondent in Colombia for
the international Latin-American channel Telesur, for "rebellion and
terrorism". The organisation called for his release.
Muñoz, 36, was seized on 19 November 2006 by Colombian intelligence
agents from the Administrative Department for Security (DAS) after he
landed in Bogota on his return from the Venezuelan capital Caracas
where he had attended a training workshop. He had left a week earlier
with no trouble.
His lawyer, Tito Gaitán, told Agence France-Presse that the journalist
had been arrested on the orders of the prosecutor's office for
"rebellion and terrorism". Freddy Muñoz himself, speaking from prison,
pointed the finger at the Colombian and US governments.
In 2005, Telesur broadcast interviews with guerrillas of the
Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National
Liberation Army (ELN), seen as terrorist organisations by Bogota and
Washington. The TV channel also broadcast footage of demonstrations
against President Alvaro Uribe, who at the time expressed his
"disquiet", while the United States called it "provocation".
"The arrest of Freddy Muñoz is a simple case of misuse of power," the
worldwide press freedom organisation said. "If it turns out that it
was indeed linked to be the broadcast a year ago on Telesur of
interviews with the guerrillas, then the Colombian government has made
itself guilty of a press freedom violation. How can a journalist
interviewing an alleged terrorist become a terrorist in his turn? If
this is the argument, it is absurd and dangerous. Freddy Muñoz must be
released," Reporters Without Borders said.
Telesur was founded at the instigation of Venezuelan President Hugo
Chavez, in a bid to counter the influence of the north-American TV
news channels. Its headquarters is in Caracas and it is funded by the
governments of Venezuela, Cuba, Argentina and Uruguay. It has ten
bureaux and 19 correspondents in Latin-America.
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