El Tiempo may sack Uribe-loyal columnist for lying .

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Colombia Reports

El Tiempo may sack Uribe-loyal columnist for lying .
Thursday, 20 September 2012 11:24 Adriaan Alsema

Colombia's former President Alvaro Uribe may lose his last major defender in Colombia's mainstream media as newspaper El Tiempo considers sacking columnist Jose Obdulio Gaviria for presenting fictitious events as facts.

In his column, Gaviria had asserted that Peace Commissioner Sergio Jaramillo, who has been representing the government in preliminary peace talks with guerrilla group FARC, had used the negotiations in Cuba to arrange the liberation of a kidnap victim "with strong ties to a certain business consortium whose top leaders unconditionally support (President Juan Manuel) Santos and the so-called 'peace negotiations'."

The column caused furious responses from both Jaramillo and El Tiempo director Roberto Pombo, while the family of the kidnap victim denied any government interference and told the newspaper the column was "full of falsehoods."

In a letter to El Tiempo the Peace Commissioner said the column was "a complete invention."

"The problem is not just the lack of veracity, but the evident aim to distort the government's attempt to bring a peace process with the FARC to fruition with false information," Jaramillo said.

Read more: http://colombiareports.com/colombia-news/news/26111-el-tiempo-may-sack-uribe-loyal-columnist-for-lying.html

[FiveGoodMen]

1. If only that sort of thing would catch on here

(the sacking, not the lying)