With alarming parallels to the recent Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project SCOTUS decision, a Colombian journalist accepted into the prestigious Nieman fellowship program at Harvard University has been barred from the U.S. by the State Department. Hollman Morris was celebrated just days ago "for demonstrating courage in the fight for truth, peace, and democracy" on his television program, Contravía. His investigative reporting has made the connections between violent paramilitary leaders and the Colombian administration, leading to the imprisonment of 30 Congress members. A profile of Morris in the Colombian Journalism Review (heh -- no relation to the country) notes that the program, available on a public channel and online, is "unearthing the largely hidden history of the country’s long-running guerilla wars" and that Morris "has been forced to leave Colombia several times for extended periods after the airing of Contravía revelations."
And now, it seems, the U.S. State Department is calling Morris a terrorist and is permanently refusing to permit him entry into the country in response to his visa request to participate in the Nieman program. From the Associated Press:
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.
Curiously, the AP points out, Colombia's president-elect, Juan Manuel Santos, was a 1988 Nieman Fellow. The Washington Post notes that, through his reporting, Morris has frequently met with State Department officials and been received at their agencies. Further, from the Post: "Jameel Jaffer, an ACLU lawyer in New York, said the visa denial appeared to be ideological, because no public information tying Morris to terrorism has surfaced."
There is good news: Morris is firmly backed by Nieman, the ACLU, Human Rights Watch, and the Committee to Protect Journalists -- as well as all of us who are appalled by this blatant abuse of anti-terrorism laws and free speech. The case is getting a good deal of media attention -- will it shame the top dogs of the State Department -- Secretary Clinton, President Obama? -- into taking action. We'll see.
Image Credit: AP
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