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News :: Media |
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News Agency For A New Colombia Has New Website |
Current rating: 0 |
by ANNCOL reader
(No verified email address) |
04 Sep 2003
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The New Colombia News Agency (ANNCOL) is an association of Latin American and European journalists founded in 1996. ANNCOL is based in Stockholm, Sweden and has since May 1998 been providing on-line news about Colombia. ANNCOL is an associated member of FELAP, the Latin American Federation of Journalists. |
WHO IS ANNCOL?
ANNCOL's Editorial Board:
LEIF LARSEN, President of the Editorial Board
As a youth during World War II, Leif Larsen joined the resistance movement against the Nazi occupation of Denmark. He served as an instructor of arms in a Danish guerrilla organization and was a tireless producer of illegal pamphlets and other publications that broke the Nazi information censorship. After the war he became a professional journalist. For decades he worked as an investigative reporter at the daily papers "Land og Folk" and "Politiken". An author of several books, Leif Larsen was for a number of years member of the executive committee of the Danish Union of Journalists and is today an honorary member of this section of the International Federation of Journalists. He is also the Chairman of the Danish Center against History Falsification.
ROBERTO GUTIÉRREZ, Senior Editor
Roberto Gutiérrez is a Colombian journalist and a survivor of a brutal assassination campaign that was directed against members of the Patriotic Union (UP) party in the 1980's and 1990's. After seeing several thousand fellow members being murdered by death squads and state security forces, Roberto Gutiérrez was obliged to flee Colombia and is now living in Sweden.
JOHN DAVID SANTOS, Editor
John David Santos is a free-lance journalist specializing in Latin American affairs.
JENS HOLM, Editor
Jens Holm has published numerous feature articles on the Colombian conflict in the Swedish media. He is the author of several books, including "För vår rätt och värdighet" (1999) about youth in Colombia.
MARIA ENGQVIST, Photographer and Journalist
Raised in Sweden and Germany by exiled Latin American parents, Maria Engqvist was originally educated as a photo documentarist and filmmaker. She has traveled extensively in Latin America and has produced several TV-documentaries about Colombia.
ANNCOL receives information from a network of collaborators in Colombia. For reasons of their personal safety, ANNCOL does not reveal the identities of these courageous newsmen and -women, who would otherwise be certain targets for death squads or members of the security forces. ANNCOL also has correspondents in other parts of the world.
WHAT DO WE AIM TO DO?
- To inform about and focus the attention on the economic, social and political development of Colombia hereby disclosing the reality of the country in its diverse manifestations.
- To be a voice for the voiceless sectors of Colombia who are today being oppressed by the Dirty War. To provide a platform for the diverse manifestations and actions of the popular movements, trade unions and the progressive communities of the Latin American countries and the rest of the world that are fighting against neoliberalism and the exploitation of the people.
ANNCOL strives to be an alternative to the transnational media corporations that monopolize the means and streams of communication in the world today.
ANNCOL intends to be a place of encounter for all those that yearn for social justice, freedom and genuine democracy in Colombia and elsewhere. We therefor invite individuals, groups, networks and associations who share our common goal to freely express their opinions.
ANNCOL is not a commercial company. We do not sell or buy information. Information from ANNCOL is free to be published provided that the source is mentioned. In order to guarantee our objectivity and independence we do not receive financial support from any government, party or company. We do however welcome individual financial contributions. Please contact us for further information.
ANNCOL does not intend to be neutral. We are co-workers in the construction of the future of humanity. Confronted with the individualistic tendencies of neoliberalism we aim at strengthening the alternative and collective action of society.
Do not hesitate to get in touch with us!
Write to: news (at) anncol.com |
See also:
http://www.anncol.org/side/2
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Interview With ANNCOL Editor, Leif Larsen |
by ANNCOL reader
(No verified email address) |
Current rating: 0
04 Sep 2003
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As regular readers will have noticed, the New Colombia News Agency (ANNCOL) has changed its looks. To mark the occasion we talked to our own boss, ANNCOL Editorial Board President Leif Larsen, about reporting truth in times of war.
25.08.2003 (By ANNCOL Staff) In his home country, Denmark, Leif Larsen is famous both as a writer and a trade union organiser – he is a former leader, and a long-standing honorary member, of the Danish section of the International Federation of Journalists.
Larsen, 79 this month, was himself a guerrilla fighter against the Nazis in World War II before he turned to journalism. Today, he rejects as absurd the labelling of Colombia’s armed opposition as “terrorists”. Here he explains why:
ANNCOL: Since ANNCOL was established in 1997, the agency has striven to be an alternative to the transnational media corporations. Why is that?
LARSEN: The global media conglomerates are leading peoples and nations into horrible problems. You simply can’t trust them. New forms of media, including web-based media, are part of a positive development towards creating confidence in ourselves and in our own strength.
ANNCOL: The guideline of ANNCOL’s approach to journalism is to be objective but not neutral. What’s the difference between these two things?
LARSEN: This is something that I’ve been struggling for throughout my professional life. To be neutral means to cut off your own balls. There is no power in reporting if you don’t have an opinion about the story you’re telling. When mainstream media claim to be neutral, they are really just covering the fact that they are siding with the mighty and powerful.
Objectivity is our starting point, but sooner or later, you have to assume a position.
ANNCOL: ANNCOL is known as a fierce critic of the US military intervention in Colombia, which is officially a part of Washington’s ‘War against Terror’. What’s your problem with the ‘War against Terror’?
LARSEN: Increasingly, the US doesn’t give a damn about the truth and the people. Criticism is being mowed down. A giant budget is being used to bribe and coerce the media at the same time as the US itself is employing terror to silence dissidence and independent opinions. This is not just happening in Colombia – it’s basically the same situation in many other places – Iraq, for example. It can seem hopeless to confront this but that’s what we have to do and that’s what we’re doing.
ANNCOL: ANNCOL has been criticized for publishing statements from Colombia’s armed opposition groups, who are labelled as terrorists by Washington. Why do you provide a space for them?
LARSEN: Look; during the Nazi occupation of Denmark, we in the resistance movement were labelled as terrorists too - by our own government. A few decades ago, Nelson Mandela’s ANC, was labelled as terrorists by the US government. Here we’re talking about political groups, who have realised what the United States are doing to their country. They want to free their own country. They’re not terrorists, they’re freedom fighters. The US is desperate to divide the movement towards freedom in Colombia and elsewhere. What we need to do is work for unity. |
