MEDIA / JOURNALISTS IN THE CROSS HAIRS : Colombia: Censorship by Terror

In their narco-terrorist campaign, cocaine traffickers have frequently targeted the Colombian press, with the obvious goal of subduing the country by muzzling the media. They appear to be succeeding: After the murders of dozens of journalists and threats against the lives of uncounted others, many reporters and news organizations are softening their coverage of the drug-trafficking Mafia.

“You can see it in the newspapers and you can certainly hear it on the radio,” a foreign correspondent who lives here said the other day.

A local newspaper editor said, “The professional now thinks twice about what he is going to publish, and some try to evade the subject of narcotics traffic.”

An investigative reporter said television news programs and the two leading radio networks, Caracol and RCN, avoid using the term narco-terrorist and other language that might anger traffickers.

Even El Espectador and El Tiempo, major newspapers known in the past for hard-hitting reports on drug-related crime and corruption, are assigning fewer reporters to investigate these subjects, the reporter said.

This is not to say that the entire Colombian press has caved in to narco-terrorists. A few journalists at El Tiempo and El Espectador still defy danger to expose the drug lords’ activities, and both newspapers still publish editorials and opinion columns that take tough stands against the traffickers.

“It’s amazing that people speak out as much as they do,” said U.S. Embassy official Phillip McLean.

Rafael Galvez, president of the Circle of Bogota Journalists, said at least 65 Colombian journalists have been slain in the past seven years, 29 of those in 1989. Most were killed by narco-terrorists, Galvez said. He estimated that 20 journalists now live outside the country because of narco-terrorist threats.

“Not only is the journalist’s life in jeopardy, but they menace his children, his wife,” Galvez said. He said journalists have responded in three ways:

- With courage, defying the drug lords. “This was the position of those who were killed,” Galvez said.

- With prudence, avoiding many sensitive subjects and softening references to drug traffickers. “This is the position of a large number of journalists,” including those running radio and television networks, he said.

- With a see-no-evil approach, ignoring the subject of drug traffic.

The Circle does not criticize any of the approaches, Galvez said, adding, “Everyone is free to administer his own fear.” But he voiced concern over the threat posed by narco-terrorists to Colombia’s traditional freedom of information.

“They are not only trying to silence the press, but they also are attempting to undermine the institutions of democracy,” he said.

Perhaps the most dramatic example of the struggle between the Colombian press and narco-terrorists is the case of El Espectador. Assassins killed Guillermo Cano, the newspaper’s editor, in 1986. Police blamed traffickers for Cano’s death and the deaths of seven other El Espectador employees in the past four years.

Last September, narco-terrorists bombed the newspaper’s Bogota headquarters, damaging the plant and injuring 89 people.

In April, traffickers drove El Espectador out of Medellin, Colombia’s second-largest city and home of the notorious Medellin cocaine cartel. Gunmen invaded the newspaper’s circulation depot, killing the transportation supervisor. Last October, narco-terrorists killed El Espectador’s circulation and administrative managers.

“We decided that we couldn’t continue to risk the lives of our employees, so we stopped circulating,” said Fernando Cano Busquets, 34, a son of Guillermo Cano and now co-editor of the newspaper.

Cano vowed that the newspaper will continue to speak out forcefully against the drug lords and their crimes. “If we don’t eradicate that evil from the country, the country will get nowhere,” he said.