Colombian journalist wins Golden Pen of Freedom award

ZARAGOZA (Spain) • Colombian journalist Jineth Bedoya Lima, who was abducted, tortured and sexually assaulted on her way to interview an infamous paramilitary warlord in Bogota in 2000, was awarded the Golden Pen of Freedom by the World Association of News Publishers (Wan-Ifra) yesterday.

Ms Bedoya Lima was investigating reports of alleged arms sales between the paramilitaries and state officials for her newspaper, El Espectador, in 2000 when she went to the notorious La Modelo prison in Bogota, for the interview.

Three years later, in 2003, while working for El Tiempo, she was again abducted and held for eight days when she had travelled to meet members of the former Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, a guerrilla group that waged war against the Colombian state for 52 years. There, she was humiliated and beaten.

For years she kept her harrowing experiences to herself but in 2009, she broke her silence when she launched the campaign No Es Hora De Callar (It is not time to be silent) to defend women's rights and denounce the systematic impunity in cases of sexual violence in Colombia.

Wan-Ifra said the Golden Pen of Freedom award recognises "Ms Bedoya Lima's dedication to the profession of journalism, her tireless work in promoting and protecting the rights of women, and her courage in confronting and overcoming her own personal tragedy with a level of dignity and determination that serves as inspiration to peers the world over".

"This award is the greatest encouragement and support that a journalist can receive," said Ms Bedoya Lima in accepting the award.

She added that the award was also recognition of the tireless fight against impunity that dozens of journalists face around the world.

In an interview with the Guardian newspaper in 2009, Ms Bedoya Lima said she had kept silent about the events that befell her for many years because the government simply "would not recognise these crimes".

"No one wanted to look into it, or even talk about it," she said.

In a landmark decision in July last year, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights confirmed Ms Bedoya Lima as a victim and declared the Colombian state responsible for the acts committed against her nearly two decades before.

In delivering the award at a virtual event, World Editors Forum president Warren Fernandez described Ms Bedoya Lima's conviction and courage as a "shining inspiration" at a time when "journalists, women and minorities are under such great threat of violence, oppression, and discrimination" around the world.

He noted that when asked how she survived those diffcult times, Ms Bedoya Lima often replied that she "refused to be silenced, choose to survive, to keep doing journalism".

Mr Fernandez, who is also editor of The Straits Times and editor-in-chief of Singapore Press Holdings' English/ Malay/ Tamil Media Group, added: "In the difficult days ahead, as we continue to grapple with Covid-19, we will have to rebuild and reinvigorate our ravaged newsrooms.

"We will have to find new ways to sustain them and keep them going, 'to choose to survive, to keep doing journalism', in the interests of the communities we serve."