MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

US denies visa to Colombian journalist awarded Harvard scholarship

Hollman Morris was honoured with the Human Rights Watch’s Human Rights Defender Award in 2007.

United States officials have denied a visa to a Colombian journalist who was awarded the chance to participate in a Nieman Fellowship at Harvard University.

Hollman Morris confirmed the decision in an interview with the Spanish government news agency Efe in Bogota, adding that studying at Harvard has been a dream of his for many years and he still hopes it will become a reality.

The visa denial is the result of a “criminal operation” against him that is being investigated by the Colombian Attorney General’s Office, Morris said, without providing further details.

He noted that he was one of numerous journalists, opposition politicians, Supreme Court justices and human rights activists to be subjected to illegal wiretapping and surveillance by the DAS security service during the administration of conservative President Alvaro Uribe, whose second term ends in August.

Morris said there is a “smear campaign” at the national and international level to accuse him of links to the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia, or FARC, guerrilla group. FARC is designated a terrorist organization by Bogota, the United States and the European Union.

The 41-year-old journalist, a specialist in human rights and Colombia’s internal conflict, is one of a dozen foreign reporters admitted to the Nieman program for the 2010-11 academic year at Harvard University.

He has been the recipient of a number of awards, among them Human Rights Watch’s Human Rights Defender Award in 2007.

Morris, who has interviewed top leftist guerrillas as part of his work and was present during the release of several rebel-held hostages in early February 2009, was accused shortly afterward by Uribe and senior members of his government of complicity with the FARC and of being an apologist for terrorism.

The journalist told Efe he had been planning to travel to the United States not only for academic reasons but also due to safety concerns, adding that the he and his family have faced threats for the past decade.

He said he is living “under protection” and was included in the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights’ protection program in 2000 after receiving threats.

Morris, who travelled this week to Madrid to participate in the Semana Negra, or “Black Week,” cultural festival in the northern Spanish city of Gijon, said he planned to spend “a long time in Europe”.

“I’m going to give a series of workshops” as part of a project that Spanish journalist and Pulitzer Prize winner Javier Bauluz has labeled “human journalism,” with the goal of “bringing attention to the voiceless, to those who are always invisible, to the victims of the human tragedy” that racks Colombia, Morris said.

The journalist said he also has been invited to visit France and Italy, among other European countries, and that during his stay he will be presenting the Swiss documentary “Temoin indesirable” (Unwanted Witness), which tells of his work covering the violence in Colombia, the intimidation and death threats he has received and the strain that has placed on his family life.