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Rafael Moreno was a Colombian journalist who regularly exposed corruption and crime in his northern home region of Cordoba. On his Facebook page, Moreno tirelessly denounced embezzlement in public contracts and illegal resource extraction. But he paid the ultimate price for his reporting. Our Bogota correspondent Pascale Mariani travelled to the Cordoba region to pay tribute to him.
In Colombia, a country where the law of silence reigns, Moreno’s investigations were followed by more than 50,000 people on Facebook. He also regularly received death threats. Six months ago, he got in touch with the Paris-based investigative consortium Forbidden Stories, telling the group he wanted his investigations to be continued and published if anything happened to him. A few days, later, on October 16, 2022, he was assassinated by a hitman.
For six months, a group of 30 investigative journalists – including from FRANCE 24 – joined forces to take over Moreno’s work, in accordance with his wishes. Our team travelled to his home region of Cordoba, which has seen decades of conflict, to find out more about the slain journalist’s life, work and legacy.
This report, part of the Rafael Project, is a tribute to all journalists who, like Moreno, are on the frontline of the fight against corruption and injustice – both in Colombia and elsewhere. The message is clear: killing the journalist won’t kill the story.
>> Read more: Exclusive: Nickel mine in Colombia destroying biodiversity and health
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