Abelardo de la Espriella also has press freedom in his sights in Colombia

Neue „Feinde der Pressefreiheit“ "Colombia's new President Abelardo Gabriel de la Espriella Otero is the South American country's greatest opponent of the press. According to the Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) in the Colombian capital Bogotá, he is "the most aggressive public figure against the press." Not a good sign for the next four years. (…) Bejarano Ricaurte is a media lawyer and repeatedly defends journalists against complaints, lawsuits for compensation and reparations. Several of these cases are linked to the name Abelardo de la Espriella. Research by the editorial team of La Silla Vacia, a critical online portal, confirms this. According to this, the 47-year-old new president has already filed 28 civil lawsuits and 22 criminal complaints against journalists and activists. Even more impressive are the figures that the Attorney General’s Office presented upon request: according to them, Abelardo de la Espriella filed exactly 109 cases of defamation and insult between 2008 and 2019…”Article by Knut Henkel from August 11, 2026 in People Make Media by ver.di externer Link and more about it:

Press freedom in the focus of the government of Colombia: in interviews and press conferences and also in the public media
"Vladimir Flórez, known by the stage name Vladdo, has left RCN Televisión. He has been working as a cartoonist for almost 40 years and was under contract there for a year. The decision came a few days after a critical cartoon of President Abelardo de la Espriella (...). The drawing showed the president walking between body bags after a military operation in Guaviare. RCN justified the separation with "administrative reasons". Vladdo shared several posts on X that linked his departure to the cartoon. This included a contribution by cartoonist X-tian, who warned of the disappearance of critical voices against the government from traditional media.
A week earlier, on August 31, Blu Radio canceled the program “Mañanas Blu 10:30,” which Camila Zuluaga and Ana Cristina Restrepo had hosted for eight years and which had won the Simón Bolívar Prize twice. The team was not informed of the decision until a few minutes after the last edition. Blu Radio, part of the Caracol group, justified the discontinuation with problems with advertising revenue and low ratings. Restrepo, however, stated that they were never presented with the corresponding figures. The ECAR studies identified the program as the station's second strongest program behind Néstor Morales' show. In her assessment, the show was uncomfortable for De la Espriella.
Two sources interviewed by La Silla Vacía also reported signs of discontent within the government. During the election campaign, Zuluaga said that De la Espriella had instructed his team not to give her interviews. On September 3, new guidelines for the government's relationship with the media, known as Presidential Directive One of 2026, were unveiled. The Foundation for Freedom of the Press (FLIP) warned that the directive appears to restrict interviews and press conferences with media that are not considered to be close to the government. Some ministers could therefore only make statements without journalists being allowed to ask questions. According to the organization, this could make critical questions more difficult, favor media that does not question the government, and promote stigmatization and self-censorship.
In this context, the FLIP referred to the SU-18 ruling of 2026 by the Colombian Constitutional Court, which reaffirms the State's obligation to guarantee access to information and freedom of the press. (…)
There were also changes in the public media. On August 18, Inravisión, the new name of the public media system previously known as RTVC, ordered the suspension of the spoken programs of the 20 “Emisoras de Paz.” (…) On September 10, the director of Inravisión, Ángela María Mora Soto, announced the early termination of service contracts, including contracts of journalists, moderators and employees in the digital content sector. (…)
Former deputy director María Paula Fonseca described the incident as a “labor massacre.” Against this background, FLIP and allied organizations called on the government on September 9 to provide concrete guarantees for press freedom. According to FLIP, 2,003 attacks on 870 journalists have been registered in the past four years, including ten murders. The organization also documented 226 cases of stigmatization by representatives of state power and, on average, threats to a journalist every two days. According to FLIP, violence, threats, displacement and exile, together with restrictions on access to information, are exacerbating self-censorship and the silencing of journalistic voices in various regions of the country.” Contribution by Jorge Andrés Garavito Cárdenas from September 12, 2026 in america21 (“Freedom of the press in the focus of the government of Colombia”)
Colombia: Freedom of the press in sight
"... No surprise for Ana Bejarano Ricaurte, because she knows how quickly and how poorly the complaints and lawsuits are fabricated. "The allegations are often baseless, the complaints are poorly prepared. They often contain no evidence, which is why a number of them have been rejected by the judiciary," explains the 38-year-old specialist lawyer. Nevertheless, they are set up in series - mostly by Carlos Sánchez, the brother-in-law of the newly installed president. And they still have an effect, says Bejarano Ricaurte. "They intimidate, ensure that the reporters have to listen to their tapes, have to hire lawyers to defend them and lose a lot of time with the proceedings. (...) Bejarano Ricaurte personally has also come into the focus of de la Espriella's lawyers when she reported on the incoming president's connections to the Venezuelan businessman Alex Saab. Saab held a ministerial post in the Venezuelan government for several years and was extradited from Venezuela to the USA in mid-May - because of Money laundering, corruption and other crimes. After the report, de la Espriella's team announced legal action against Bejarano Ricaurte - with typical procedure: "The legal apparatus is set in motion to put pressure on the colleague. The economic and emotional significance of such a process should lead to auto-censorship," writes the FLIP in a press release. (…) Ana Bejarano doesn't necessarily want to face this with fear. The well-organized and extremely active civil society gives her hope. "Colombia is Colombia. Colleagues here have been working under difficult conditions for decades."The lawyer who works in her father's office believes that this will continue despite de la Espriella. People there have already prepared for more work.”Further out of theArticle by Knut Henkel from August 11, 2026 in People Make Media by ver.di

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