Published on 17 December 2009
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30 October 2009 - Interior Ministry protection programme for journalists also used for "close-quarters spying"
Harold Humberto Rivas Quevedo, the host of a community programme on local TV station CNC Buga and a sports commentator for two radio stations, Voces del Occidente and Radio Guadalajara de Buga, was shot dead last night in Buga, in the western department of Valle del Cauca.
Aged 48, Rivas was gunned down in the funeral parlour that he also managed. A man in a helmet marched in and shot him five times. The killer then walked out and drove off on a motorcycle.
“The murder motive has yet to be established but we urge the authorities not to rule out the possibility that it was linked to the victim’s work as a journalist,” Reporters Without Borders said. “In a country torn by an endless civil war, community journalists, who often work in the worst-hit areas, are in the front line. The political discussion programme Rivas hosted could have exposed him to reprisals.”
In the programme “Comuna Libre” that he had been hosting on CNC Buga for the last eight months, Rivas invited community leaders and politicians to discuss local issues, which were sometimes quite controversial.
His colleagues nonetheless insisted that they had never heard anyone threaten him. His family described him as a happy and very active man who had shown no sign of having any particular worries.
Rivas was the third journalist to be killed this year in Colombia, which was ranked 126th out of 175 countries in the 2009 Reporters Without Borders press freedom index.
Miguel Galván Gutiérrez was arrested in March 2003 during an unprecedented crackdown launched by the Cuban government and sentenced to 26 years in prison after being found guilty of being a "mercenary in the service of a foreign power".
