Journalist Luis Eduardo Gómez was gunned down last week in Colombia, becoming the first journalist to be killed in that country this year.

Gómez, 70, was murdered on 30 June in Arboletes (Antioquia) while walking home with his wife. The shooters escaped on motorbikes.

An independent journalist who had recently been writing about tourism and the environment for the El Heraldo de Antioquia and Urabá al Día regional newspapers, Gómez was also known because of his investigations covering corruption in the province and his intention to clarify circumstances surrounding his son’s murder, which occurred in August 2009, and was allegedly committed by paramilitaries.

The reporter was also participating as a witness in a criminal process regarding politicians’ alleged links with the United Self-Defense Forces of Colombia (AUC), led by the Prosecutor’s Anti-Terrorist Unit. Some Colombian newspapers reported that Gómez’s murder was part of a plan to eliminate witnesses in the investigation. Gómez was the second witness in the case killed in 72 hours, and the fourth since November 2010.

José Vicente Botero, 62, was killed in a similar incident on 27 June. During his funeral, Gómez stated that Botero’s case was the product of a criminal alliance between politicians and paramilitaries in the region. Inhabitants of Arboletes believe these words were Gómez’s death sentence.

A municipal government secretary, Esteban Revollo, said it was not yet certain that the murderers of Botero and Gómez were paramilitaries. But he acknowledged that the murder of Gómez showed that measures taken at a security council level did not bring about the expected results.

“The murders of Botero and Gómez are shocking and we implore the Colombian government to find the murderers and bring them to justice, to send the message that those who seek to silence the media will not benefit from a climate of impunity,” International Press Institute (IPI) Director Alison Bethel McKenzie said.

The Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) also deplored Gómez’s killing and expressed concern about the level of violence against the press, and self-censorship, in the region of Urabá. According to the organization, 55 journalists were threatened in Colombia during the first half of 2011, while 57 threats were registered in 2010. The numbers suggest that work as a journalist in the Colombian provinces is becoming increasingly difficult.

According to IPI’s Death Watch, three journalists were murdered in Colombia in 2010. Clodomiro Castilla and Rodolfo Maya Aricape were both gunned down, while Mauricio Moreno Medina was stabbed to death.