IAPA protests court order in Peru

Peruvian press organizations protested the October 30, 2006, order by Lima 35th District Criminal Court Judge Mercedes Gómez Marchisio to Expreso’s editor Luis García Miró to refrain from publishing any news item concerning former Justice Minister Diego García Sayán while his lawsuit proceeds. Following the clamor sparked by the ruling, however, the judge limited the restriction to solely any matter that might offend or defame the ex-minister.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Gonzalo Marroquín, declared, “Our organization respects the right of any citizen to have recourse to the courts when he or she feels offended, but what should be absolutely clear is what the Organization of American States’ Inter-American Court on Human Rights upholds – that the exercise of press freedom should not be subject to prior censorship but to the ‘subsequent imposition of liability’ that such exercise entails.”

García Sayán, who currently heads the Andean Justice Commission and is a former member of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, is suing the Expreso editor for defamation over his accusation that he freed terrorists during his term as Peruvian minister of justice. He is seeking the equivalent of $900,000 in punitive damages.

Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, daily newspaper Prensa Libre, said, “We trust that this inappropriate action and the debate sparked by it, as well as the right of people to have recourse to the courts, leads to a better understanding by the public of the right to information and the role of the media in a democratic society.”        

FUENTE: nota.texto7