When Reporters Make the News: Narrated Role Performance During Colombia's Post-Conflict with the FARC Guerrilla Group

Colombian journalists experience abundant threats, acts of violence, and corporate and governmental obstacles to conveying the social reality. In response, many reporters engage in self-censorship, eschewing stories to protect their livelihoods and lives. This study had two objectives: to understand the conditions that limit the work of Colombian journalists and to gain a deeper understanding of the theoretical aspects that explain the phenomenon of journalists’ resilience in the post-conflict era. There were two research questions: R1: What forms does self-censorship take among Colombian journalists in the post-conflict era? R2: What are the key factors that trigger self-censorship in Colombia after the singing of the Peace Accords?

Sample

We interviewed sixteen journalists, some of whom have had to leave the country due to threats. They disclosed the severity of the self-censorship problem in deeply textured ways.

Main Findings

The results show that dependency on sources and advertising, severe judicial and online harassment, and powerful editorial pressures prevent journalists from reporting freely in the country during the post-conflict phase. The key factors that trigger self-censorship are generalized fear, official advertising, political publicity distribution, the media’s property, and local journalists’ vulnerability. Nevertheless, these journalists also have counterstrategies to circumvent the problem, such as sharing scoops with colleagues when covering sensitive issues, finding international funding, creating new online media, and working together through unions or other professional associations. The journalists interviewed listed the topics subject to self-censorship in Colombia’s news media: forced displacement, corruption in the private sector, illegal mining, the murder of social leaders, illicit drug trafficking, and conflict-related topics.

Policy recommendations/implications

We think the main contribution of this study has been to provide a deeper understanding of the theoretical aspects that explain the resilience of journalists in the post-conflict era from reporters’ perspectives and the strategies they use to avoid self-censorship, a topic that literature has scarcely addressed. Much of today’s literature comes from the Global North, where robust democracies exist; therefore, studies may be unable to extrapolate. We must make room for studies from other contexts, with particular findings from the Global South. There is merit in identifying specific realities, such as the one in Colombia, and listening to hitherto silenced voices of reporters in a way that is difficult to address from a purely quantitative perspective. This contributes to the existing literature on the safety of journalists. Future studies could use other techniques and involve other social actors to explore this relevant and timely issue and describe the resilience strategies in other countries facing protracted conflicts.