President Ernesto Samper Pizano
President of Colombia
Casa de Narińo
Bogotá
Colombia

Granada, 22 March 1997

Your Excellency,

The Executive Board of the International Press Institute (IPI), meeting on the occasion of the IPI World Congress and 46th General Assembly in Granada, Spain, strongly condemns the killing of the Colombian journalist Gerardo Bedoya.

IPI is informed that Mr. Bedoya, a columnist and editor of the editorial pages of Colombia’s third largest newspaper, El Pais of Cali, was assassinated on 20 March 1997 outside his home in Cali by unknown gunmen, presumably acting on behalf of the drug barons.

Two days before his death, Mr. Bedoya had written an editorial column in which he strongly advocated the extradition of drug traffickers to the United States and the confiscation of their properties. He is the fourth Colombian journalist to be attacked in the last six months.

IPI, the global network of editors and media executives from newspapers, magazines, broadcasting organisations and news agencies in 98 countries, strongly urges Your Excellency to authorise an immediate and thorough investigation into the murder of Mr. Gerardo Bedoya and to ensure that the Colombian government takes all possible steps to stop the killing of journalists and the alarming impunity that has accompanied these crimes.

We thank you for your attention.

Yours sincerely,

Johann P. Fritz
Director