Colombian Officials Arrest Telesur Reporter

Colombian intelligence agents arrested a Telesur reporter on charges of terrorism and rebellion on Sunday.

"This type of accusation undoubtedly surprises us. We think this is an attack against freedom of the press, against the right to information," Andres Izarra, Telesur president, told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

The arrest warrant was issued against Freddy Muñoz for charges relating to a series of bombings along the Caribbean coast in 2002.

Reporters Without Borders has protested the arrest and is demanding his release. The international press freedom organization has suggested that the arrest could be retribution for Telesur’s 2005 broadcast interviews with guerrillas of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) and the National Liberation Army (ELN), groups that Washington and Bogota consider terrorist organizations. In addition, Telesur also broadcast footage of anti-Uribe demonstrations, which angered the Colombian president while the Bush Administration called a "provocation".

Muñoz, a Colombian national, claimed in an interview that "the paramilitary have penetrated the political power (of Colombia), and I think these groups have continued to act through harassment, coercion, lies and trying to shut up the people who oppose them."