P e r u

10. RIGHT OF REPLY AND OF RETRACTION

Decree 26,775 of 1997 regulates the right of correction. Article 2 states that every person must exercise that right within thirty (30) days following the publication. The correction shall be made within seven (7) days following the request. The proportionality of the Constitution shall be respected (Article 3). If the periodical has made the correction spontaneously, no request needs to be made (Article 4). The periodical may reject the request when said request is not immediately related to the facts or images. The request may also be denied when the correction is a defamation (Article 5). If the periodical does not make the correction, the aggrieved person may appeal to the Ethics Committee established by the media (Article 6).

Since this right relates to the right of opinion, Article 2 of the Constitution states that ?there is no crime of opinion? and that every person has the right to the ?freedom of opinion.?

With respect to the right of correction, the same article of the Constitution states that every person has the right to honor, good reputation, personal and family privacy, as well as one?s own image and voice.

Any person who is affected by untrue statements or aggrieved via any communcation medium has the right of correction, free of charge, immediately and proportionally, without prejudice to the responsibilities of law.

Under the Constitution, the publication of the correction is mandatory, while it is not so in the case of opinion, which is left to the discretion of the communcation medium.

On the other hand, as a result of the Constitutional Reform for Habeas Data, the provisions of Law 26,301 (of May 3, 1994), which refer to the exercise of the action of Habeas Data in the case of the right of correction, are no longer in effect.

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