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Colombian journalist Rafael Moreno was killed on October 16 after his reporting exposed corruption and crime, from embezzlement in public contracts to illegal resource extraction – work that ultimately cost him his life. A group of journalists including a team from FRANCE 24 formed The Rafael Project to complete his work and keep his stories alive.
Before he died, Rafael Moreno said: “If you want to kill me, kill me. But I’ll tell you straight up: you won’t silence me.” On the night of October 16, Moreno was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle in Montelibano, a small rural town in northern Colombia’s Cordoba department, one of the most marginalised and violent parts of the country. Moreno worked there as director of online news outlet Voces de Cordoba, in which he regularly exposed corruption, embezzlement and the activities of illegal armed groups.
A month before his death, Moreno denounced the Colombian government for withdrawing the protection he received after being threatened.
Moreno was investigating the installation of a mine on property belonging to a senator; according to him, resources were being extracted from it for public construction projects.
A few days before he was killed, Moreno contacted Forbidden Stories, an international consortium of investigative journalists offering to protect the work of colleagues under threat. Moreno told the group he wanted his investigations to be pursued and published worldwide if anything happened to him.
This is first time Forbidden Stories has pursued the work of a journalist in accordance with instructions they gave before their murder.
For six months, a group of some 30 reporters co-ordinated by Forbidden Stories have taken over Moreno’s investigations, including journalists from FRANCE 24 and its sister service Radio France International, examining hundreds of documents and emails that Rafael had not yet made public to uncover a system of wide-scale clientelism and endemic corruption.
FRANCE 24 will be broadcasting the results of the investigation on April 18 at 6pm Paris time (GMT+2), along with 31 other media outlets.
The Rafael Project is sending a clear message to enemies of the free press, in Colombia and elsewhere: killing a journalist won’t kill the story.
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