Jineth Bedoya Lima

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Jineth Bedoya Lima (born around 1974 in Ibagué, Colombia) is a Colombian journalist known for reporting on paramilitary groups and human rights abuses. She has worked for the Bogotá newspaper El Espectador and later for El Tiempo.

In May 2000, while investigating arms trafficking by state officials and the right-wing paramilitary group AUC, Bedoya visited La Modelo prison for an interview with a paramilitary leader. She disappeared and was abducted, drugged, tortured, and raped by three men who said they worked for Carlos Castaño. Her editor and photographer were with her but separated at the time. She was left tied near a road and found by a taxi driver. The case dragged on for years; in 2011 a soldier was arrested and confessed to being one of her attackers. In 2021 a regional human rights court found Colombia responsible for the kidnapping, torture and rape.

In August 2003, Bedoya traveled to Puerto Alvira to report on life under FARC control. The FARC kidnapped her and her photographer, stripping them of their cameras. Local townspeople helped, and the journalists were freed. Bedoya later wrote about life in the area without incriminating the townspeople who aided her.

She published the book Vida y muerte del Mono Jojoy (2010) about a FARC leader. She has continued her journalism work and has been protected by bodyguards and a bulletproof car for safety.

Bedoya has received several major awards, including the CJFE International Press Freedom Award (2000), the Courage in Journalism Award (2001), the International Women of Courage Award (2012), the Anna Politkovskaya Award from RAW in WAR (2017), the UNESCO/Guillermo Cano World Press Freedom Prize (2020), and the Golden Pen of Freedom Award (2020).