Colombian news media denounces chilling risks for freedom of the press in the country

The news media group gathered under the Colombian Association of News Media (AMI) - the organization that has united most of the country's press for 63 years - issued a statement referred to as a heartfelt, necessary, and urgent call to Colombians, in a context of repeated and increasingly aggressive declarations and actions aimed at curtailing the freedom of the press, freedom of expression, and the right to information, and consequently limiting democracy in Colombia.

AMI thus called on the public to demand and defend their rights to freedom of expression, the right to information and freedom of the press, and to freely choose the consumption of information and journalism according to their preference, without passions or pressures, guided by criteria of intellectual interest and curiosity to form their own judgment and make sensible and respectful decisions based on multiple sources of information, as fundamental premises for the construction of society, country, democracy, and peace.

Here is the full text of the statement:

The practice of journalism and the work of the media have been subjected to repeated and increasingly aggressive declarations and actions aimed at curtailing freedom of the press, freedom of expression and the right to information, and consequently limiting democracy, at a time when indicators of press freedom, violence against journalists, and disregard for international standards of press and freedom of expression are reaching alarmingly deteriorating levels in Colombia.

Added to this is the creation of an environment that favors political control debates on journalistic work, which are not legally viable, to introduce the convenience of regulations that institutionalize censorship in our country. Therefore,

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