De la Espriella administration violates fundamental rights and the 2016 Peace Agreement, he said.
On Friday, Colombian Sen. and former presidential candidate Ivan Cepeda announced that he will file a tutela action with the courts against the administration of far-right President Abelardo de la Espriella for ordering the suspension of opinion programming on the Peace Stations.
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Colombian President De La Espriella Alters Peace Stations’ Programming
“I will file a tutela action against the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies and INRAVISION for violating the fundamental rights to information, freedom of expression and peace, violated as a result of the decision to suspend the programming of the 20 Peace Stations,” he posted on social media.
“This decision disregards that these stations were created based on the provisions of point 6.5 of the Peace Agreement and the duty of state authorities to comply in good faith with what was agreed,” he added.
On Wednesday, outlet El Armadillo denounced that the De la Espriella administration had ordered the Public Media System (Inravision) to shut down the programming of the “Peace Stations” radio stations, many of which are located in municipalities most affected by the armed conflict.
“Inravision ordered the directors of 20 stations to stop all their programming. Since Tuesday, music has been broadcast instead of the programs produced at those stations, which were created under the 2016 Peace Agreement,” journalist Juan Ortiz reported.
“The decision also includes the 11 decentralized stations that make up the National Radio system, which has more than 70 frequencies throughout the country,” he added.
The suspension of the news and opinion programming block on Colombia’s public radio and television stations was formalized after a meeting between Angela Mora, Inravision’s manager, and Alexandra Falla, the minister of Information and Communications Technologies.
On Aug. 16, the Ministry of Information and Communications Technologies published a document in which it justified changes to the Peace Stations as part of a process to put an end to the “propaganda apparatus in the Public Media System.”
As part of that objective, the far-right government seeks to implement measures such as ending the news and opinion programming block and immediately reviewing Inravision’s content, contracts and agreements.
The Peace Stations were created to comply with point 6.5 of the Peace Agreement signed in 2016 by the Colombian state and the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).
Besides reporting on peace-building initiatives and the implementation of the 2016 agreement, the Peace Stations allocated 90% of their programming to reporting on the needs of the territories where they were located.
As part of their founding objectives, the Peace Stations seek to promote education for coexistence and provide information spaces for communities most affected by the armed conflict in municipalities such as El Tambo (Cauca) and Ituango (Antioquia).
Through the recent decisions on programming on those radio stations, De la Espriella is beginning to implement his plan to dynamite the Peace Agreements. As he has publicly stated, he seeks to end the peace negotiations, bomb armed groups instead of engaging in dialogue, resume the spraying of illicit crops instead of involving peasant families in voluntary substitution, and reduce the size of the state.
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: teleSUR – El Armadillo – X
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