|
|
Country-by-Country
Reports
|
PERU
Journalism has made strides in Peru in recent months. Peruvian president Alejandro
Toledo and Bolivian president Jorge Quiroga signed the Declaration of Chapultepec,
pledging to support and advance freedom of the press and the free flow of news
in their two countries. IAPA president Robert Cox endorsed the move, calling
it a positive step for democracy in the Americas.
The press by and large represents a broad range of views, both favorable and
unfavorable to the government. The government does not censor the media, and
in recent months has generally tolerated criticism and made no attempt to limit
freedom of the press.
Even so, there have been reports of affronts to freedom of the press. IAPA press
freedom coordinator Ricardo Trotti traveled to Lima to meet with Eduardo Calmell
del Solar, who had filed a complaint with IAPA claiming that his right to due
process had been infringed. Trotti also met with the relevant authorities.
To date the newspaper Expreso, of which Calmell is a shareholder, has reported
no limitations on the freedom of speech. At the same time, Calmell's family
has renewed its request for a determination from the IAPA that Calmell's due
process rights are still being infringed.
Peru's Congress has made public a number of documents declassified by the United
States government, which offer a version of the facts pinning the death of the
newspaper La República's former editor, Gustavo Mohme Llona, on a plot
hatched by Vladimiro Montesinos.
Mohme Llona's family issued a statement that they had become aware of this version
of the facts months earlier, and had filed a formal complaint with the authorities
quietly investigating the case. Then IAPA president Danilo Arbilla had also
been informed of the investigation at the time. When La República heard
of the investigation, it published a long report on its own investigations.
The case is now in the hands of prosecutors.
The Congressional Committee on Transportation, Communications, Housing and Construction
has set up a five-member subcommittee to prepare a report on the Telecommunications
Modernization and Transparency bill, appointing congressman Natale Amprimo of
the Decentralizing Parliamentary Union party (UPD) to chair the subcommittee.
One of the main causes for concern with this new law affecting television is
that it should not incorporate content controls of any kind.
The prospect of the government rescinding several television stations' licenses
has given rise to debate within the government and in the media. Mario Vargas
Llosa called it a very dangerous thing for democracy that two television stations
were still being run by owners who are fugitives from justice after taking million-dollar
bribes from Montesinos.
The media answered that the crime had been committed by the individuals, not
the companies, and that the guilty parties' children were now running the stations
independently as an advance on their inheritance. There were signs that the
government planned to rescind the licenses of Channels 4 and 5 and set up an
international competitive bidding process with oversight to award them to new
concession holders. That initiative did not get off the ground in the executive
branch, and an uneasy peace is being kept. Significantly, the controversial
programs "Panorama" and "Revista Dominical" were back on
the air in January without restrictions.
Genaro Delgado Parker sought to regain control of Panamericana Televisión
through the courts, arguing that he was the majority stockholder. The officers
of Panamericana Televisión cast the case as an affront to press freedom
and accused president Toledo of intervening with the courts in Delgado Parker's
favor. The court eventually required Delgado Parker to secure his claim by posting
bond. He could not do so, and the court did not secure the claim. The case is
still pending in the courts.
Alvaro Vargas Llosa, who claims to have gone underground, has filed a complaint
alleging government harassment. Vargas Llosa has also accused president Toledo
of granting favorable treatment to EADS, a company owned by Toledo friend and
businessman Adam Pollack Mark. Vargas Llosa later said he would not appear in
court to answer the defamation charge filed against him by Pollack Mark. Government
authorities deny entering into any contract with EADS, although they do acknowledge
meetings of the Air Force with spare parts suppliers in late January, at which
EADS was present. Vargas Llosa has filed charges of judicial irregularities
in the court proceeding against him, such as the unusual order not to leave
the country and a threat of arrest for contempt of court.
The Peruvian Press Council has voiced concern over the danger to the freedom
of speech of groundless claims from the Peruvian Association of Visual Artists
(APSAV) that they should be paid for the publication of artworks in news stories.
The Peruvian Press Council has been compelled to seek judicial relief for its
Article 200 constitutional protections of basic rights.
Congress has proposed a series of laws with ramifications for the freedom of
speech, such as the Access to Information Act being sponsored by seven members.
The Peruvian Press Council is working with congressman Henry Pease on the prospect
a single law free from contradictions that might endanger this fundamental principle.
Another issue is the Conscience Clause, sponsored by congresswoman Fabiola Morales,
which runs counter to every principle of journalistic ethics. In effect, journalists
who disagree with a change in a media outlet's editorial stance would be able
to resign and be awarded compensation by the company.
Other affronts to press freedom occurred in the Department of Ancash. Hugo Gonzáles
Henostroza, a correspondent for the Huaraz newspaper Liberación, reported
receiving death threats after revealing irregularities and violations in the
resumption of operations at an old geological fault by the mining company Barrick
Misquichilca Gold Corporation S.A. Not far away Marco Villafuerte Montoya, a
journalist and editor of the bi-weekly newspaper Millenium, reported unidentified
death threats after publishing reports on pollution problems in the Callejón
de Huaylas area of Ancash, where a mining company was operating.
In the same region, Huaraz Global TV reporters Pamela Mautino Córdova
and Maritza Sánchez Villarreal were attacked by members of the security
detail of Ancash Transitional Board of Directors chairman Flavio Ramos Aquiño
during his swearing-in ceremony at the Huaraz Supreme Court.
Finally, Prensa Regional and Radio Ancash producer Robin Hood Ipanaqué
Hidalgo was physically assaulted by individuals associated with Glicerio Mauricio
Rodríguez, who is chairman of the Defense Front for the Interests and
Development of the San Marcos District, Huari Province, Department of Ancash,
and a former councilman candidate of the pro-Fujimori movement, Vamos Vecinos.
In Lima National Police officers kicked and hit cable television channel Canal
N cameraman Juan Carlos Hidalgo Sayán with plastic rods as he was filming
the eviction of stall keepers from Ramón Castilla market in the Rímac
district.
Leaders of the Perú Posible party threw stones and other objects at Radio
Panorama's offices in Andahuaylas Province in the Department of Apurímac,
and entered the booth where journalists Alipio Cancho Aldana, Ronald Ripa Casafranca
and Alibar Serrano Muñoz were reporting on a secret meeting to draft
the short list of new government officials to be appointed in Apurímac.
Elizabeth Huamán Perales, a correspondent for América Televisión
Canal 4 in Huancayo, was struck in the face and kicked while covering president
Toledo's visit to that city in Peru's mountain region.
Huamán Perales said she had been covering the events when she was pushed
to the ground to take her camera away. She reported the incident to the police,
so that those responsible would be punished.
Perú Posible activists also assaulted Diario de Chimbote reporters Janet
Reyes and Marco Villanueva Escobar, Canal N correspondent Nancy Arellano, RPP
Noticias correspondent Augusto Riera Rodríguez, and Panamericana Televisión
reporter Ignacio Patiño Cisneros and his cameraman Lorenzo Zafra Córdova
in the city of Chimbote. The attack came as the journalists were covering Perú
Posible headquarters, where the Regional Health Director for Ancash was being
held.
Journalist Otilio Nolberto Ríos Valdiviezo was forced to cancel the news
program "Nuevo Horizonte" on Radio Pum in the town of Pomabamba, in
response to death threats he received on three separate occasions. Ríos
Valdiviezo made his decision after the radio station's manager, Hugo Mori, threatened
his life. After reproaching Ríos Valdiviezo for seeking guarantees for
his news coverage, Mori said threateningly, "You don't know who you're
dealing with."
When Ríos Valdiviezo reported the threats to the police, he was required
to produce a Journalists Colegio card and a card from the Engineers Colegio
before they would look into the matter.
Also cancelled was Robin Hood Ipanaqué Hidalgo's news program "Noticiario
Ancash," which had aired Monday through Saturday on Radio Ancash. Ipanaqué
Hidalgo reported that Radio Ancash program director Dante Moreno Neglia had
informed him on the night of January 26 that the program would be going off
the air, offering no explanation whatsoever. Ipanaqué Hidalgo alleged
that the cancellation, which put more than 10 journalists working on "Noticiario
Ancash" out of work, was in retaliation for his constant criticism of local
authorities.
Héctor Enrique Chavarry Carahuatay, producer and host of the news program
"Democracia" on the Frecuencia Popular radio station in the city of
Chepén, Department of La Libertad, was physically and verbally assaulted
on February 4 by army specialist and Chepén military recruitment officer
Cristóbal Cárdenas Lázaro and photographer Ramón
Bazán Quiroz.
The attackers struck Chavarry Carahuatay in the mouth, badly bruising him, after
breaking his left cheekbone with a gun carried by Bazán Quiroz. Those
involved in the attack said it was in retaliation for Chavarry Carahuatay's
frequent news stories on corruption involving the chief of the Chepén
Military Recruitment Office, who had apparently been soliciting bribes from
citizens applying for military identification cards.
On February 4 producer Edmundo Gutiérrez Saldivar and host Bertha Chacón
Díaz of the program "Presencia Regional Noticias" airing on
the Oasis radio station in Quillabamba requested a personal protection order
from the deputy police chief for La Convención Province, in response
to recurrent death threats from Army Maj. Jaime Llanos Barrón. Gutiérrez
Saldivar and Chacón Díaz reported that they had been followed
for several days.
Press photographer Francisco Rodríguez Torres of Caretas magazine in
Lima was physically and verbally assaulted by members of president Toledo's
security detail on February 8. Rodríguez Torres was covering the president's
visit to the Túpac Amaru settlement on the central highway east of Lima,
when he was kicked in the shins and struck in the testicles while trying to
photograph the president.
Cable television channel Canal N reporter Christian Alberto Aoki Flores was
attacked by a municipal security guard in the Lima district of San Isidro while
covering an eviction on February 19, breaking his shin in several places. Aoki
Flores said his attacker prevented him from filming any part of the eviction
and threw him against the channel's motorcycle. Following his surgery, Aoki
Flores is now unable to work for three months.
Initiatives by the National Journalists Association are underway to investigate
murders still surrounded by impunity, including those of Hugo Bustíos
Saavedra, Pedro Yauri Bustamante and Tito Pilco Mori, four of the 50 journalists
murdered between 1982 and 2000.
 questions
or comments? e-mail us
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
All rights reserved.
. |
