US denies visa to Colombian journalist to attend Harvard program

[Judi Lynn]

US denies visa to Colombian journalist to attend Harvard program
FRANK BAJAK
Associated Press Writer
10:59 p.m. EDT, July 8, 2010

http://snsimages.tribune.com.nyud.net:8090/media/photo/2010-07/54836046.jpg

In this photo taken March 24, 2010, Colombian
journalist Hollman Morris smiles while posing for the
camera in Bogota. The U.S. government recently
denied Morris a visa to attend a prestigious
fellowship at Harvard University.
(AP Photo/Revista Semana) (AP / March 24, 2010)

BOGOTA, Colombia (AP) — The U.S. government has denied a visa to a prominent Colombian journalist who specializes in conflict and human rights reporting to attend a prestigious fellowship at Harvard University.

Hollman Morris, who produces an independent TV news program called "Contravia," has been highly critical of ties between illegal far-right militias and allies of outgoing President Alvaro Uribe, Washington's closest ally in Latin America.

The curator of the Nieman Foundation at Harvard, which has offered the mid-career fellowships since 1938, said Thursday that a consular official at the U.S. Embassy in Bogota told him Morris was ruled permanently ineligible for a visa under the "Terrorist activities" section of the USA Patriot Act.

U.S. Embassy and State Department officials refused to confirm the visa denial, citing privacy laws.

"We were very surprised. This has never happened before," said the Nieman curator, Bob Giles. "And Hollman has traveled previously in the United States to give speeches and receive awards." He said he had written the State Department to ask it to reconsider the decision.

More:
http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/nationworld/sns-ap-lt-colombia-journalist-us,0,7868341.story

LBN:
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=102x4458309

[Judi Lynn]

1. More to think about regarding Hollman Morris, from the article:

~snip~
He said the committee had discussed its concerns with State Department officials but was not provided with an explanation.

"They told us they discussed this with Hollman and that's just not true," Simon said.

The 41-year-old Morris, one of 12 foreign journalists admitted to the Nieman program for the 2010-2011 academic year, is among the most controversial chroniclers of Colombia's long-running leftist insurgency.

Among international awards he has received is one from Human Rights Watch in 2007 in which he was praise by Executive Director Kenneth Roth for "courage, an unswerving commitment to justice and genuine concern for the rights of all victims."

On various occasions, President Uribe has accused Morris of collaborating with rebels of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, which killed Uribe's father in a 1983 botched kidnapping.

On Feb. 3, 2009, Uribe called Morris "an accomplice of terrorism" posing as a journalist after Morris showed up with FARC rebels to cover the insurgents' liberation of four Colombian security force members.

Morris was also among journalists, judges and opposition politicians whose phones were illegally tapped by Colombia's DAS state security agency.

Nearly two dozen former DAS officials have been arrested on criminal conspiracy charges in the scandal and are awaiting trial.

Morris is listed in a 2005 DAS memorandum obtained by prosecutors someone being under surveillance for showing "opposition tendencies to government policies."

(This move by the State Department sounds EXACTLY like something we would have expected, with disgust, from the _Bush administration.)

[flamingdem]

2. They better make a lot of noise about this nt

[Judi Lynn]

3. Very short YouTube interview:Hollman Morris on "The Other Colombia"

Well worth taking the time to watch this 2 minute 45 second video with subtitles.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cw6HQflZMz0

Colombia: Stories That Kill - Interview with Hollman Morris
Nine minutes, voice-over
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiwAKRh4N20

Very, very interesting, helpful.

On edit, please take time to see the second one. This man is no phony. Please take 8 minutes. Thank you.

[Judi Lynn]

4. Another interview with Hollman Morris: Colombian Journalists Track Guerrilla War on Contravía

Colombian Journalists Track Guerrilla War on Contravía
CIR Web Exclusive Video | March 26, 2009

Interview by Mark Schapiro
Produced by Carrie Ching, Joe Rubin, and Andres Cediel

ABOUT THE SERIES
Welcome to The Investigators, an ongoing web-video series highlighting investigative reporting—as it happens—by journalists around the world. The series features interviews with journalists, who share the stories behind their groundbreaking international investigations into human rights abuses, financial corruption, political malfeasance, environmental destruction and other abuses of power. Often these journalists work in dangerous circumstances, risking their lives to reveal stories that have far-reaching impact and are relevant to us all.

ABOUT CONTRAVIA
Our first segment features Colombian journalists Hollman Morris and Juan Pablo Morris, who created a series on Colombian television that is unearthing the largely hidden history of the country’s long-running guerilla wars. The series, called Contravía, airs on Colombia’s third public channel and online www.contravia.tv.

While the violent tactics of the left-wing guerilla movement, the FARC, have generated considerable press attention—most recently after the release of kidnapped former congresswoman Ingrid Betancourt and other hostages in July 2008—a major component of that violence, by right-wing paramilitary groups, has gone largely unreported. Founded some twenty years ago by landowners to combat the guerillas, the paramilitary groups have transformed into violent criminal enterprises financed through cocaine exports and kidnappings—much like the FARC itself. Over more than two decades, the paramilitary squads have been responsible for the deaths and disappearance of as many as 20,000 people, according to the National Movement of Victims of State Crimes, a human rights group established to protest paramilitary abuses.

The Morris brothers take their cameras deep into the Colombian countryside to probe into the disappearance of thousands of individuals kidnapped over the past decade, and track efforts to unearth their graves far from the cosmopolitan capital city of Bogotá or the eyes of the international or global press. “Our aim,” Juan Pablo told us, “is to reconstruct the memory of those atrocities…. Many of the people who followed the paramilitaries in the 1980s and 90s are running the country today.”

Contravia has uncovered links between paramilitary leaders and high officials in Colombian politics and finance. Thirty senators and representatives in the Colombian Congress have been imprisoned because of their ties to the paramilitary death squads; another sixty have been investigated. That’s a third of Colombia’s 268 member Congress, giving rise to a new term—‘para-politica’—to describe the ongoing crisis as one top politician after another is accused of complicity with the para-military squads. Most of those accused represent political parties that are part of the governing coalition led by President Alvaro Uribe.

More:
http://www.centerforinvestigativereporting.org/tags/hollmanmorris

[Judi Lynn]

5. Hollman Morris to Be Awarded Chavkin Journalism Prize

Hollman Morris to Be Awarded Chavkin Journalism Prize
May 4 2010
NACLA

NEW YORK—The North American Congress on Latin America (NACLA) announced Tuesday that Colombian investigative journalist Hollman Morris will receive the 2010 Samuel Chavkin Prize for Integrity in Latin American Journalism in honor of his brave work exposing human rights abuses in his country. Morris, 42, a native of Bogotá, has spent more than 15 years covering the armed conflict in Colombia, giving voice to the victims of violence and oppression. He is the editorial director of Contravía (Against the Current), a weekly investigative news show that since 2002 has aired more than 200 half-hour episodes covering the most important human rights cases in Colombia.

As a result of his work, which often takes on the Colombian government’s complicity in human rights abuses, Morris has been targeted by the Administrative Department of Security (DAS), a domestic intelligence service under the command of the Colombian presidency. According to recently released documents, Morris has been subjected to a “smear campaign,” as the DAS itself described it, intended to discredit his journalism. Officials at the highest levels of government have said Morris is “linked” to leftist guerrillas and called him a “terrorist sympathizer”—accusations that, although unsubstantiated, led directly to death threats against him.

Contravía has always been financially supported by the European Union, and more recently by the Open Society Institute. Yet it has been targeted by the Colombian government as a subversive threat. The campaign against Morris and Contravía was just one component of a larger, systematic attempt by the Colombian government’s security apparatus to silence dissenters—including human rights organizations, judges, members of congress, and journalists—through illegal surveillance and intimidation. Despite this, Morris has fearlessly pressed ahead with his investigations, making him an outstanding candidate for the Chavkin Prize.

More:
https://nacla.org/node/6544

~~~~~
Friday, February 13, 2009
Hollman Morris falsely accused of having ties with the FARC

The Colombian authorities’ accusations against one of the country’s premier independent journalists, Hollman Morris, are unfounded and are a violation of press freedom.

Colombian authorities have stated that Mr. Morris was present during the release of the hostages on February 1st at an undisclosed area in the jungle and that he was directly given the location in advance by the FARC rebels. As a result of this, the government has publicly accused the journalist of being affiliated with the FARC. Hollman Morris has freely admitted that he indeed was present at the release sight, but in no way did the FARC give him the coordinates of the secret location. Mr. Morris has stated that he had been trying for weeks to get an interview with the FARC leadership and that he traveled through the jungle for days before arriving at what turned out to be the location of the FARC’s release of the hostages.

In any case, Hollman Morris’s presence at the release sight is not illegal under Colombian law and the subsequent actions taken by the Colombian government are clear violations of freedom of the press.

Mr. Morris was temporarily detained – along with his cameraman – by military officials. Felix Ivan, the commander of the XII brigade, without proof, went to the extent of claiming that he had official documents demanding that Hollman Morris turn over his notes and any footage of the release. Making matters worse, several high-ranking Colombian authorities have since made irresponsible public declarations. Defense Minister Juan Manuel Santos stated that Mr. Morris is “close to the FARC.” President Álvaro Uribe Vélez has gone further to state that Hollman Morris “shields himself in his status as a journalist to be permissive and complicit with terrorism.”

These public allegations have resulted in a wave of new threats against Mr. Morris – who has been a beneficiary of Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ protection program since 2000. Mr. Morris is a renowned investigative journalist and peace activist.

More:
http://blog.usofficeoncolombia.com/2009/02/hollman-morris-falsely-accused-of.html

~~~~~
Wednesday, June 30, 2010
U.S. to Hollman Morris: Stay Out!

Just in case you needed further evidence that the Obama administration is continuing with the same policies towards Latin America as the Bush administration, prominent Colombian journalist Hollman Morris, who Big 'Al Uribe once called a "an ally of terrorism," was denied a visa by the US embassy in Bogota, this according to Matthew Rothschild at The Progressive. Morris was headed to the US after being selected as a fellow by the Neiman Foundation at Harvard.

You may remember from a post awhile back, that Morris was the target of a smear campaign by the DAS. The link was to Plan Colombia and Beyond who had the documents outlining DAS movies against not only Morris, but other opposition groups and journalists as well. Adam Isaacson wrote at the time:

Here are the files obtained by Hollman Morris, with English translations. They go beyond surveillance and wiretapping to reveal what it calls a “political warfare” campaign of dirty tricks and threats against President Uribe’s political adversaries. They date from 2005, the last year of Jorge Noguera’s tenure as DAS director.

The guy digs deep, goes where people don't want him to go and is a verifiable bad ass. As Rothschild writes, quoting heavily from Human Rights Watch, who gave him a "Defender of Human Rights" award in 2007:

“A journalist and human rights activist, Morris has dedicated his career to uncovering the truth about atrocities committed on all sides: by right-wing paramilitaries, left-wing guerrillas, and government authorities,” said Human Rights Watch in granting him the award. “Morris has faced serious harassment and death threats for his work. . . . Human Rights Watch honors Morris for his courage and unfaltering dedication to exposing Colombia’s most egregious human rights abuses.”

More:
http://structurallymaladjusted.blogspot.com/2010/06/us-to-hollman-morris-stay-out.html

[Judi Lynn]

6. Hollman Morris, Colombian Journalist, Says Patriot Act Visa Rejection for "Terrorist" Activities "Pu

Posted: July 14, 2010 11:37 AM
Hollman Morris, Colombian Journalist, Says Patriot Act Visa Rejection for "Terrorist" Activities "Puts My Life in Danger"

A Colombian journalist who was recently denied a visa to study under Harvard University's Nieman Fellowship program says the State Department's decision may put his life under further threat. Hollman Morris, an investigative television producer who has denounced abuses by leftist guerrillas, right-wing paramilitaries and the Colombian army in the country's decades-long internal conflict, was denied a student visa in late June. The denial reportedly came under a provision of the Patriot Act that makes foreigners suspected of "terrorist activities" ineligible for admission to the U.S..

Morris, who has received death threats for ten years, believes the "terrorist" label will increase threats against him and his family.

The journalist, whose family lives under the protection of bodyguards, says the visa denial "indisputably puts my life in danger." Had the visa application been accepted, Morris' family would have moved with him to Cambridge for the year. The head of the Nieman Foundation program, Robert Giles, says this is the first time in the 60-year history of the program that an international fellow has been denied entry to the country.

U.S. officials have not provided the exact reason for Morris' denial. Morris and human rights advocates supporting his case believe the rejection is connected to a campaign by Colombia's intelligence agency, the Department of Administrative Security (DAS), to discredit Morris by linking him with the leftist guerrilla group Fuerzas Armadas Revolucionarias de Colombia (FARC). Colombia's largest rebel group is on the US list of foreign terrorist organizations.

The State Department declined a request for comment, citing Morris's privacy.

Over the past year Morris has traveled to the U.S. to discuss Colombia's human rights issues with officials at the Pentagon, Department of State, Congress and White House. In January of this year he lunched with Deputy Secretary of State James B. Steinberg in Bogotá, according to the Washington Post. In 2007, Human Rights Watch gave Morris the annual "Human Rights Watch Defender Award."

In February 2009, the Colombian press unleashed a nation-wide scandal when it reported that the DAS had been carrying out widespread illegal wiretapping, email interceptions, surveillance, and threats against people viewed as critics of President Álvaro Uribe, a list that includes Supreme Court judges, presidential candidates, journalists, and human rights defenders.

Morris -- whose television show Contravía has been critical of the Uribe government and has denounced alleged ties between paramilitaries and members of the government and armed forces -- was a primary target of DAS wiretapping and surveillance. Documents obtained by Morris from the Colombian attorney general's office, which is investigating the DAS, indicate that the intelligence agency orchestrated a smear campaign against Morris that included instructions to link him to a FARC video and "press for the suspension of the visa."

More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/max-schoening/hollman-morris-colombian_b_645911.html