ABSTRACT
In Colombia, media and journalism have had a close relationship with political and economic powers. The sociopolitical context characterized by an armed conflict lasting more than 50 years conditioned the media system and the type of information produced. Consequently, the coverage of violent events associated with the confrontation between the state and the guerrillas appears as one of the topics of interest that gives rise to media observatories in public and private universities and readers’ ombudspersons’ offices in some newspapers. These, together with the figure of the television ombudsman established by law, were consolidated during the 1990s as the main media accountability instruments in Colombia. While the twenty-first century has seen the emergence of native digital media that are detached from political and economic interests, the national and regional agendas continue to be dominated by traditional media, hence the need for state intervention through media policies that favor a more pluralistic and diverse media environment.
