Gunmen kill Colombian TV reporter at home

BOGOTA, Colombia - Gunmen burst into the home of a Colombian radio and television reporter and shot him dead in the second fatal attack on a journalist in the Andean nation this year, officials said today.

Milton Fabian Sanchez was killed yesterday morning NZT in his house in Yumbo municipality in Valle de Cauca, 250 km south of Bogota, said Jesus Maria Serrano, secretary for the local municipal authority.

Press organisations have often ranked Colombia one of the most dangerous places for journalists reporting on the country's conflict and its huge drug trade. Colombia has struggled to end a four-decade conflict with leftist rebels and far-right paramilitaries.

Sanchez, 30 and married with two children, worked for a local radio and television station where he presented a local community service programme.

"He never told us of any threats against him. He was a journalist serving his community and his work never involved any security themes, illegal armed groups or cases of corruption," Serrano told Reuters by telephone.

Local Cali province police commander Jose Roberto Leon said there were no immediate details about who was responsible or why Sanchez had been murdered.

Since 1980 more than 100 journalists have been killed in Colombia by drug traffickers, leftist guerrillas or rightist militiamen involved in the conflict. Attacks on journalists have dropped, but many are still subject to death threats.

- REUTERS