A WAN Interview with Claudia Duque, Journalist, Colombia

Claudia Duque is a renowned journalist and human rights activist in her country. Recipient of the Historias de Vida prize for outstanding journalism, she has worked for the Colprensa News Agency and other media organisations. She is the author of Faces of Abduction and Attorney General of The Nation: A hope turned into threat. She has also been the victim of kidnapping, harassment and threats and has been forced to leave the country several times. For almost five years she faced legal problems for her work on the murder of fellow journalist Jamie Garzon, a story that has been haunting her for 10 years. She talks to the World Association of Newspapers.

Your reports regularly put you in the line of fire. How is your work contributing to the establishment or defense of press freedom in Colombia? 

As a human rights defender and researcher, I have faced death threats, a kidnapping and harassment, I have been followed and I have been accused of defamation. In the most recent case against me, on October 2008 I succeeded in getting the Constitutional Court to recognize that secret service reports about my work existed. My former bodyguards, who had been hired by the Departamento Administrativo de Seguridad (DAS) (the Colombian secret police, directly attached to the Presidency) had written those reports. The Constitutional Court determined that all DAS reports, even those considered as secrets or "national security files" related to me should be delivered to me and unclassified. The documents include evidence of surveillance, "work reports", etc., and more.

This ruling represents a fundamental step forward for securing freedom of expression, opinion and of the press. It is important not only for me, but for all journalists and human rights activists involved in any kind of illegal prosecution or harassment.  The Court ruled that security forces and other state entities can only collect information on a person when it implies his/her responsibility in a criminal action.  As a result of this, it is now illegal to record and share information about the private lives of people, even if they are included in State protection programs, which had previously been my case.

I have been facing this situation for the past 8 years and, from that, I have come to understand the importance of active solidarity.  This has meant getting involved in different actions in favor of my colleagues who have also been targeted. I have had the opportunity to speak out on behalf of many of them, and also to help them directly; sometimes by helping them leave the country, or hiding them in the city or somewhere else, or simply by picking them up when they need it. Today, I strongly believe that the only way to achieve real press freedom in Colombia is to ensure that all of us defend it together. Regardless of personal differences, focuses, or ideas - the right to express is above all interests and sensitivities.

Nearly ten years ago, you investigated the murder of fellow journalist Jaime Garzon and have been harassed and threatened since. At what price have you followed your stories such as the case of Gazon's murder?

I have paid a very high price for investigating Jaime Garzon's case - three exiles, many death threats against me and my daughter, isolation, silence, and pain. I also face a legal charge, led by the former deputy director of the DAS. Over the years, I have learned that in Colombia there is neither forgiveness nor forget for those who fight against impunity in prominent cases of human rights violations. There were days in which I couldn't take the sun, in which I couldn't go to a park to play with my little daughter. She has been forced to learn not to speak on the phone, not give out her personal details and not have trust in anyone.

How can a freer and safer working environment for journalists be fostered in Colombia?

From my perspective, the end of impunity in cases of murder, torture, intimidation and threats against journalists are the only ways to ensure that some day we will be near to this so-called freedom of expression, which I have never been close to experiencing. Additionally, the strengthening of alternative programs for protecting journalists should be accompanied by a real policy in favor of civil liberties in Colombia. As long as the President himself - as well as his closer friends and other high-ranking State workers- continues to threaten and challenge the right to freedom of expression and stigmatize journalists and dissenters, it will not be possible to ensure a safe environment for journalism in the country.