Type of site News Founder(s) Adriaan Alsema Website colombiareports.com Founded 2008 | Available in English Employees <10 Headquarters Medellín | |
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Key people Adriaan Alsema, Editor-in-Chief
Jenifer Rivera, coordinator Profiles | ||
Interview with adriaan alsema colombia reports
Colombia Reports is a Colombian news website in English, founded in 2008 by Dutch journalist Adriaan Alsema and headquartered in Medellín. It claims to be "independent" and "not affiliated with any political or social organization."
Contents
The site started "as a weblog just to bring Colombian news in English in a way it wasn’t being brought." Alsema claimed in a 2009 interview that "even though Colombia is one of the most important countries for U.S. foreign policy in Latin America, the information available to those that don’t speak Spanish was very limited."
On February 26, 2014, Colombia Reports received angel funding from GITP Ventures in order to more aggressively expand the company's offerings in the marketplace. GITP Ventures and Colombia Reports parted ways on February 9, 2016, with Alsema stating in an editorial "that running a news website almost automatically creates conflicts with the economic interests of investors".
Controversies
Colombia Reports has never shied away from controversy, including editorials by Alsema about sex in Colombia and interviews by staff with Colombian sex tourists.
In April 2015, Colombia Reports' editor-in-chief Adriaan Alsema published a series of articles claiming that between 2003 and 2007, US military personnel and contractors had sexually abused many Colombian children. By June 2015, it was discovered that the source for these articles was faulty and Alsema was forced to retract those stories, expressing regret that he "felt responsible for having spread an urban myth".