CLACSO's support for public media in Colombia

In a letter to the Manager of Radio Televisión Nacional de Colombia, Hollman Felipe Morris Rincón, the Executive Director of CLACSO, Karina BatthyányHe denounced the threats and harassment against the region's public media outlets. "a siege by powerful forces that do not tolerate democratic and popular voices" and thanked “for the important support that public media are providing to the X Latin American and Caribbean Conference of Social Sciences that the Latin American Council of Social Sciences (CLACSO) is organizing from June 9 to 12, 2025 in Bogotá, capital of Colombia.

We also greatly value all the organizational, production, and coverage work that ensures the Concert for Peace in Plaza de Bolívar in Bogotá on the eve of the start of #CLACSO2025, as a contribution to adding value to this great meeting of academia, social movements, and public policy generators around critical thinking towards a future with more democracy, freedoms, and equality.

It is a great honor for CLACSO that Radio Televisión de Colombia (RTVC) is the official channel of the X Conference, thus reinforcing our appreciation and respect for the public media of the countries of our region, in this particular case of the new Colombia that emerged from the popular victory in the elections of June 2022.

This meeting between CLACSO and RTVC comes at a time when public media in the region are facing intensified attacks from powerful groups that cannot tolerate democratic and popular voices and are waging a campaign of attacks and fake news that undermine the people's right to truthful information. Colombia is no stranger to these campaigns against public media, and it is necessary to unite and denounce them.

Karina Batthyány concluded: “I renew our gratitude for all the support, with the certainty that #CLACSO2025 will find in Colombia the most favorable environment to achieve the necessary synthesis in the face of the urgent future challenges in a region and a world in the midst of upheavals, armed conflicts, increased inequalities and worrying attacks on democracies.”