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Colombian Journalists Denounce Alleged Government Censorship

Colombia
Colombian Journalists Denounce Alleged Government Censorship


In Colombia, the De la Espriella administration faces censorship allegations after journalists left various media outlets. Credit: Juan Diego Cano / Presidency of Colombia.

The government of Abelardo de la Espriella is facing its first allegations of alleged censorship against journalists. In just five weeks, the departures of Camila Zuluaga and Ana Cristina Restrepo from Blu Radio and the unexpected termination of RCN’s relationship with cartoonist Vladdo have raised concerns about the new administration’s relationship with the media.

The three cases have one element in common: they occurred after content or positions critical of the government, although neither Blu Radio nor RCN has publicly acknowledged that its decisions were the result of pressure from the Casa de Nariño.

Vladdo’s case, in particular, sparked controversy after the cartoonist posted —on his personal social media accounts— an image of De la Espriella surrounded by the bodies of slain criminals, referring to the controversial episode in which the president was seen walking among bodies covered with white sheets, an incident that is now under judicial scrutiny.

Colombian journalists denounce alleged government censorship

The first episode occurred on August 31, when Blu Radio ended Mañanas Blu 10:30, the program that had been hosted by Camila Zuluaga for years and in which Ana Cristina Restrepo participated.

The program began in 2018 and had received two Simon Bolivar Journalism Awards, Colombia’s highest professional journalism recognition. The decision was communicated to the team on the same day as its final broadcast, without allowing the journalists to say goodbye to their listeners.

The official explanation was economic. Caracol Televisión, which owns Blu Radio, cited financial and audience-related reasons. Restrepo, however, challenged that explanation and said that, in her view, the program had made the De la Espriella government uncomfortable and that there had been pressure to take it off the air. That interpretation turned a business decision into a political issue and opened a debate over possible mechanisms of indirect censorship.

In this regard, Restrepo told journalist Daniel Coronell that “at no point were we shown the numbers that proved that,” referring to the alleged decline in audience figures. The journalist also backed her skepticism with ECAR studies, the benchmark metric for Colombian radio. According to her account, those results had always favored the program.

“In the ECAR studies, we always did quite well, including some very, very good results,” Restrepo said, adding that Zuluaga’s program was the station’s second-best-positioned show, behind only journalist Néstor Morales’s program, the outlet’s star host.

Camila Zuluaga had been hosting the program “Mañanas Blu 10:30” on Blu Radio since 2018, but it was canceled overnight on August 31. Credit: @zuluagacamila / IG.

Vladdo and the cartoon of the bodies

The controversy resurfaced a week later with Vladdo. RCN Televisión —the country’s other major private television network, alongside Caracol TV— canceled the contract of the renowned cartoonist, who had had a segment on Noticias RCN called Los Trazos del Poder since 2025. The channel did not publicly explain the circumstances and only said the decision was based on administrative reasons.

His departure came after Vladdo published a cartoon depicting De la Espriella surrounded by bags containing bodies. The image directly referred to photographs and videos of the president walking among bodies covered with sheets after a military operation against members of a FARC dissident group in the department of Guaviare.

The episode had prompted questions about the government’s handling of the bodies of those killed and is currently under judicial scrutiny. Vladdo’s cartoon turned that controversy into a graphic criticism of the president, published on his social media accounts and not in the media outlets.

Although there is no public confirmation that the image led to his departure from RCN, the proximity between the two events has fueled suspicions that the cartoonist himself also addressed in a conversation with journalist Daniel Coronell.

A contentious relationship from the beginning

The cases involving Zuluaga, Restrepo and Vladdo are not the only elements behind the concerns. The Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP) questioned a presidential directive on the government’s relationship with the media as early as September. Under the directive, public officials must obtain prior authorization from the Presidency to give interviews or make public statements.

According to the organization, these guidelines contemplated limiting interviews, restricting questions to officials and concentrating much of the government’s communication in the Presidency.

FLIP also questioned the existence of criteria to distinguish between media outlets considered “friendly” and others, warning that such a practice could limit access to information and hinder the work of critical journalists. On September 9, the organization and several allied groups called on the government to provide real and verifiable guarantees for the exercise of journalism.

The document also alleges that critical voices have been silenced and demands that the government “must refrain from any direct or indirect pressure aimed at conditioning editorial decisions or excluding from public debate those who question its administration,” arguing that such practices could constitute indirect censorship.

In this regard, FLIP called for allegations of official pressure on national media outlets to be clarified and for editorial independence to be respected, without using political, economic or institutional resources to condition publications or punish particular editorial lines.

Among the issues that prompted the statement, the NGO mentioned the suspension of the news programming of the 20 peace radio stations created as part of the 2016 Peace Agreement and implemented during the Petro administration.

This was followed, in August, by a complaint from the Colombian Journalists’ Union regarding restrictions on a platform operated by the National Unit for Disaster Risk Management that allowed journalists to access real-time information about victims and damage caused by the earthquake. The union described the measure at the time as a possible “first act of censorship” by the new government.

Petro also clashed with the press

The debate also has an immediate precedent. During Gustavo Petro’s government, relations with some journalists were also marked by intense confrontations, although the circumstances were different and there were no direct actions by the administration against the professionals involved in the current cases.

In August 2024, Petro referred to some female journalists as “mafia dolls,” an expression taken from the title of a well-known Colombian novel. The president said those journalists had contributed to building a particular narrative about the protests. FLIP and journalism organizations rejected his statements at the time, describing them as stigmatizing.

The difference now is that the allegations are not limited to presidential rhetoric. The departures of programs and journalists, restrictions on access to government officials and control over official communications have moved the debate from statements to concrete decisions.

For now, there is no public evidence that would allow anyone to assert that the government ordered the departures of Zuluaga, Restrepo or Vladdo. But the coincidence of the events and the warnings issued by press-freedom organizations have placed De la Espriella before one of his first institutional tests: demonstrating that his disagreements with critical journalism will not become obstacles to its practice.





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