Libertad de Expresión

5 - Chapter IV - Evaluation of the Situation of Freedom of Expression in the Hemisphere (continued)

Intimidation

 

1.                  In January of 2000, the defamatory pamphlet called Repudio (Repudiation) reappeared in the kiosks after having been out of circulation for nearly three months. As in prior issues, it insulted the congressman and editor of the daily La República, Gustavo Mohme Llona. According to information received, the 12-page tabloid continued in the sensationalist style that has characterized it since its inception, this time devoting nine full pages, including the cover and pictures, to damaging the political and personal image of  Gustavo Mohme[1], who opposed the government of Alberto Fujimori.[2]

 

2.                  On February 29, 2000, Alberto Enrique Piñado, a journalist for Radio Galaxia in Bagua Grande, Amazonas department, reported that on February 17, plainclothes individuals who identified themselves as members of the Public Relations Office of the “Las Brisas” section of the city appeared at several radio and television stations asking for information about their staff and the names and times of programs. While the radio station refused to provide any information, the television station supplied it. This gave military personnel the opportunity to ask about the political history and personal and professional connections of the then candidate for congress for Amazonas Donald Mejía Yoplac of the Somos Peru party.[3]

 

3.                  In March of 2000 journalist Alberto Ramos Romero, news director of Radio Ancash in Huaraz, was forced to resign by the owners of the station because of criticism he had aired on March 26, 2000, against the government of President Alberto Fujimori and the activities of ruling party congresswoman Maria Espinoza Mattos and other officials. Ramos alleges that the pressure began months earlier, and became more acute. In the first two weeks of March a similar fate befell journalists Robin Hood Ipanaque of Radio Vision Alegria, Edgar Palma Huerta, publisher of the bi-weekly La Jornada, and Gerardo Rocha Chocos, news director of Radio Huascartin.[4]

 

4.                  On April 3, 2000, unidentified individuals attempted to shoot at Hernán Carrión, a journalist from Radio Ancash, in the port of Chimbote. The journalist had been receiving telephone threats and his news program was suspended as a result of its critical coverage of the Fujimori government.      On April 18, 2000, then President Fujimori visited Chimbote as part of his presidential election campaign. Mobile units of Radio Ancash conducted an opinion poll in the city. The results of the survey indicated widespread discontent with the government because of the high unemployment rate and political repression.  Journalist Hernán Carrión de la Cruz alleged that this coverage prompted the Internal Revenue Service (SUNAT) to notify the owner of Radio Ancash, Dante Moreno, that the station would have to file its tax return within three days or else be fined 150,000 sols (about US$45,000), despite the fact that the station had already paid its taxes. Later, Moreno directed journalist Hernán Carrión to “take a week off” because it was his fault that the station was going to have to pay the fine. On May 25, 2000, Moreno cancelled the radio program on the grounds that he was worried about the journalist’s safety.[5]

 

5.                  On April 8, 2000, the daily Liberación reported in its pages a new form of harassment, this time presumably perpetrated by the electric energy company that supplies power to the northern zone of Lima, Edelnor. According to the newspaper, a few minutes before the presses of LEA S.A. (which prints the paper) began to roll, an extremely high voltage surge of electricity damaged the control panel for the press, causing an immediate halt to the work. When Fernando Viaña, a stockholder of the paper, complained, four repair technicians from Edelnor showed up at the pressroom. They confirmed that Edelnor had interrupted one of the service circuits. Service was swiftly restored. Because of this incident, the newspaper Liberación was late in coming out and the press run was incomplete.[6]

 

6.                  On April 7, 2000, Peria Diana Villanueva Pérez, a journalist of Channel N in Trujillo, requested protection for her life and the life of her family from the deputy mayor of the province, Sergio Sánchez.  The journalist alleged that unidentified individuals had been staking out her house and trailing her and her sister very closely. Villanueva Pérez also said that while she was going about her reporting duties, unidentified persons took pictures of her. She expressed fear for the life of her family members.[7]

 

7.                  On April 24, 2000, journalist Alberto Pintado Villaverde of the radio station Galaxia Stereo in Bagua Grande province, Amazonas department, alleged that he was the victim of manipulation by the departmental coordinator of Peru 2000, Milecio Vallejos Bravo.  According to the information received, Vallejos Bravo attempted to bribe the station by offering money to its news director, Carlos Flores Borja, to air a letter against then- presidential candidate Alejandro Toledo and to change the news orientation of the program. Alberto Pintado mentions in his report, by way of background, that two days before the election of April 9, 2000, Flores Borja was threatened to stop sending reports to Radio Marahón de Jaén by a person who presented an identification card from that station. Upon checking, it was discovered that the individual did not in fact work for the station.[8]

 

8.                  On May 22, 2000, the Press and Society Institute told the Rapporteur that it had been experiencing systematic blocking of its e-mail system since March. This problem made it impossible to send and receive the alerts that it transmitted daily from its offices. The organization said that there was apparently a selective blocking, because all of the alerts sent to the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) network were stopped while other types of information sent to other e-mail addresses did not usually have any problem. [9]

 

9.                  On May 29, 2000, journalist Leddy Mozombite Linares, host of the program Soncco warmi (A Woman’s Heart) on Radio Santa Rosa, was stopped by four unknown individuals who physically attacked her. The incident occurred precisely when she was on the way to the broadcast studios. Mozombite alleged that the unidentified assailants caught her by surprise from behind and held her arms while they tried to strip her. Witnesses who were in the area came to her aid. However, before one of the attackers fled he threatened to kill her. The journalist is also a leader at the Training Center for Household Workers. The president of that institution and director of the program, Adelinda Diaz Uriarte, has said in the daily La República that the incident is but one of several examples of harassment which have beset them since February of 2000, as a result of criticism of the government on the radio program. Diaz added that the assault and the threats are also due to her organization’s refusal to cooperate in the presidential electoral campaign of then-candidate Alberto Fujimori. Agents of the government offered them computers and the placement of their program on a station with a larger audience. In view of the incidents, journalist Mozombite went to the Office of the Human Rights Ombudsman to seek protection for her life.[10]

 

10.              On July 28, 2000, Paul Vanotti, a reporter for the Public Media Center agency, was struck by a tear gas grenade in his right eye during a street demonstration called “La Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos.” Vanotti was accompanying U.S. journalist Lizabeth Hasse when the incident occurred. She and Vanotti had been working for several weeks on an investigative report on the situation of democracy in Peru for The Nation Magazine, edited in New York City. [11]

 

11.              On August 14, 2000, Alexander Carbajal Soto, director of the news program  Centinela: Testigo de la Noticia (Sentinel: Eyewitness News) was the victim of an attack by two persons passing in a station wagon. Besides wounding him, the attackers threatened to kill him. The journalist’s program had uncovered the case of a professor at a local university who was questioned because of committing “negative acts” against certain students, and violence against a person in May of 1999 that resulted in the death of the individual. In addition, the journalist said that on the day he was attacked, his program denounced irregularities in the Regional Labor Office.[12]

 

12.              At the end of August of 2000, journalist Cecilia Valenzuela, director of the news agency imediaperu.com was the victim of harassment for the publication of a series of articles that questioned the role of the National Intelligence Service (SIN) in a case involving arms and drug trafficking. For several days, a station wagon was parked outside the agency office and on September 4, a car attempted to run her over in front of her house. Valenzuela had been the target of a smear campaign by a sector of the Peruvian media known as “prensa chicha.”[13]

 

13.              On September 26, 2000, Johnny Pezo, host of the radio program La Revista del Mazaterillo on Radio Panamericana, in the city of Yurimaguas, alleged that he was the victim of harassment and intimidation by the Peruvian National Police (PNP) after reporting details of a drug bust during a police operation on his program.[14]

 

14.              Since August of 2000 Marilu Cambini Lostanau, correspondent of the daily Liberación in the city of Chimbote, alleges that she has been the victim of harassment by presumed agents of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) and the National Intelligence Service (SIN). According to information received, the journalist had investigated and revealed irregularities in those two agencies. The journalist says that because of her investigations she was denied access to various police installations on the pretext that they were restricted areas. On September 6, after receiving repeated telephone threats, she came to a local government office to seek guarantees for her safety and that of her children. In her request, she said that people had an interest in silencing her. She was given formal guarantees of security by the deputy mayor of Salta province, Dr. Manuel Torres Vásquez, in a resolution dated September 18, 2000. However, the journalist has testified that the guarantees never took effect. On October 26 of the same year, unidentified individuals entered the Gambini residence and took documents related to investigations that were underway. The journalist did not report the incident to the police because she felt that they would not give her any guarantee for her safety. She went instead to the office of the Human Rights Ombudsman in Chimbote, where she filed a complaint and received counseling.[15] On November 18 of that year, one of the journalist’s children was kidnapped for nearly 10 hours. After a hunt that lasted until after midnight, the two-and-a-half year old boy appeared at the door of the house with a note on his clothes that said: “Tattle-tale, this is only a warning….”[16]

 

Arrests

 

15.              On December 2, 2000, Yehude Simon Munaro, former publisher of the magazine Cambio, was freed after eight years in prison. Simon had been arrested on June 11, 1992, and sentenced to 21 years in prison on charges of supporting terrorist activities through his reporting for the magazine. [17]

16.              On December 14, 2000, according to information received, a review was began of the cases of journalists Hermes Rivera Guerrero, Antero Gargurevich Oliva, Juan de Mata Jara Berrospi, Javier Tuanama Valera, and Pedro Carranza Ugaz, who were imprisoned serving terms of from 12 to 20 years, accused of complicity and/or conspiracy with the armed subversion in the last decade.[18] The National Association of Journalists of Peru and the Office of Journalists’ Human Rights, whose leaders visited the prisons in Cajamarca, Chiclayo, and Lima to gather fresh evidence of the journalists’ innocence, reported that they had been in prison since the beginning of the 1990’s. In some cases, the original complaints against the inmates have been withdrawn, and in others they are held because they made false confessions after being tortured by the police, who even asked for payment to release them.[19]

 

17.              The situation of Hermes Rivera, who has been in Picsi prison, Chiclayo, since May 8 1992; Antero Gargurevich Oliva, in Miguel Castro Castro prison, Lima, since March 6, 1993; Juan de Mata Jara Berrospi, since June 10, 1993 in Miguel Castro Castro prison, Lima; Javier Tuaiama Valera, since October 16, 1990, in Huacariz prison, Cajamarca; and Pedro Carranza Ugaz, since November 29, 1993, in Huacariz prison, Cajamarca, is similar to that experienced by 45 other journalists, who after being detained unjustly during the Fujimori regime have now been released.[20]

 

Legal and/or Judicial Actions

 

18.              In April of 2000, the Fourth Civil Court in Lima temporarily froze the bank accounts and four properties of the Correo Publishing House in Piura, Lima, and Arequipa, because of a libel suit field by Congressman Miguel Ciccia Vásquez, then candidate of the Alliance of Peru.[21]

 

19.              On May 23, 2000, the Press and Society Institute reported that a few days before the runoff presidential election scheduled by the National Electoral Board for May 28, two offices of the Public Prosecutor blocked the dropping of a criminal suit against the El Comercio publishing house for alleged irregularities in the use of dollars from the Mercado Unico de Cambios (MUC) during 1989 and 1990.[22]

 

20.              In August of 2000, Manuel Ulloa Van Peborgh, director of the Central Reserve Bank (BCR) and owner of the newspaper Expreso, accused Cesar Hildebrant, editor of Liberación, and reporters Mariella Patriau and Fernando Viana, of aggravated defamation of character and sued them for civil damages of three and a half million sols (about one million US dollars). The suit was based on a news account published in the daily Liberación, which related a series of events that occurred after the death of former Senator and Economy Minister Manuel Ulloa Elias, father of the plaintiff.[23]

 

21.              In August of 2000, Alfredo del Carpio Linares, editor of the program Veredicto: La voz del pueblo de Radio Armonia (Verdict: The People’s Voice) in Camana, was sued by Enrique Gutiérrez Sousa, Provisional Mayor of Camaná, for alleged slander in an interview with Congressman Rubén Terán Adriazola, in which he was questioned about investments in  programs for the municipality.[24]

 

22.              In August of 2000, Congressman Jorge del Castillo of the American Revolutionary Popular Alliance (APRA) filed a criminal suit against the editorial committee of the magazine Etecé on charges of libel and defamation because of the magazine’s publication of a series of photos identifying him attacking a police officer during the so-called “Marcha de los Cuatro Suyos.” Etecé issued a press release apologizing for the involuntary error that it published in the magazine.[25]

 

23.              On August 29, 2000, journalist Rosana Cueva of the daily Liberación was notified by the 290th Criminal Court of Lima of a case against her on charges of alleged aggravated defamation of a member of the Superior Court of Lima, Juan Miguel Ramos Lorenzo, stemming from an article published in said newspaper that called into question his actions as an official. Mr. Ramos demanded civil damages of at least one hundred thousand dollars.[26]

 

24.              On September 14, 2000, Jimmy Arteaga, a former employee of Channel 2—Frequencia Latina when it was owned by Baruch Ivcher, told the Press and Society Institute that for three years both he and his wife, journalist Mónica Ceballos, had been victims of legal harassment. Arteaga was accused four times of various criminal offenses, allegedly contrary to the interests of the Latin American Broadcasting Company, Inc.[27]

 

25.              On October 13, 2000, Hugo Meza Layza, a journalist in Coishco, was sentenced to one year in prison (suspended) and payment of 300 sols in damages. The verdict, pronounced by the head judge of the Second Specialized Criminal Court, was based on a complaint against journalist Meza Layza (according to information received) for “falsely assuming the title of professional journalist and a college degree that he did not have.”[28]

 

26.              On October 31, 2000, Adrián Aguilar Reyes, editor of the Huandoy Noticias program of Radio Huandoy, in Caraz, was given a conditional sentence of one year in prison and ordered to pay 1,500 sols in cash for civil damages for the alleged offense of slander against Mayor Pedro Crisólogo Castillo Flores for his denunciation of serious irregularities during the elections of April 9, 2000.[29]

 

27.              In December of 2000, James Beuzeville Zumaeta, editor of the radio program La Razón, broadcast on Radio Arpegio in Iquitos, was sentenced to one year in prison (suspended) and required to pay civil damages of eight thousand new sols for the crimes of slander and aggravated defamation of José Tomás González Reátegui, former chairman of the Regional Administration Transition Council (CTAR) of Loreto and former Minister of the Presidency.[30]

 

Censorship

 

28.              On January 8, 2000, journalist Oscar Diaz's political radio program, La Revista del Momento (News of the Moment), which is broadcast on the station Radio Miraflores, was publicly censored by the station's owner, journalist Ricardo Palma. The censorship occurred as a result of separate interviews Diaz did with exiled businessman Baruch lvcher and exiled former president Alan Garcia Perez.[31]

 

29.              On February 9, 2000, Fernando Alfaro Venturo, director and host of the political analysis program Linea de Mira (Line of Vision) protested a decision to stop broadcasting reruns of the show, which have been aired every Sunday night for over four years.  The program broadcasts live every Sunday at 7:00 a.m. (local time) and the reruns air at 10:00 p.m. (local time), on the Canal 6-Video Oriente television station, in Pucallpa, department of Ucayali. However, from now on, music videos will be broadcast in place of the later show. The interruption occurred precisely at the moment when the journalist began to report on a clash between members of the Peruvian National Police and the Navy, which had occurred a few days earlier in the city of Pucallpa, in full public view.[32] Moreover, Alfaro Ventura informed that he had been told by the owner of the channel, Emerson Benzaquen, “not to report on any issues that could affect President Alberto Fujimori or the presidential advisor Vladimiro Montesinos.”

 

30.              On May 22, 2000, when Channel N was broadcasting live a ceremony involving then President Alberto Fujimori in the Plaza de Armas in Arequipa, there was a sudden interruption of the television signal. The newspaper La República reported that the station was taken off the air because outside parties cut the cable connecting the satellite dish with the Plaza de Armas in five places. At the end of the ceremony, the correspondent for Channel N, Carlos Torres Salas, was attacked, surrounded, and beaten by a group of supporters of Peru 2000 who stole his portable radio and a microphone.[33]

 

31.              On October 25, 2000, in an apparent move to limit television coverage of anti-government demonstrations in Lima, the Peruvian Air Force imposed flight restrictions that effectively barred news stations from flying helicopters over the capital. On September 14, according to local press reports and sources contacted by the CPJ, the government abruptly declared an expanded no-fly zone over downtown Lima. Previously, only the presidential palace and certain military zones were off limits, but the new no-fly zone covered most of Lima's historic district, where the demonstrations were taking place. The new policy particularly affects the Lima-based cable news station Canal N, which was launched just over a year ago by the owners of the daily El Comercio. Canal N is one of only a few Peruvian media that have dared to criticize the government of President Alberto Fujimori.[34]

 

32.              On September 23, 2000, journalist Francisco Rodríguez Robles, editor of the news program El Informante on Radio Alpamayo in Huaraz, alleged that his program was suspended because of criticism it aired about television anchor Laura Bozzo and former adviser of the National Intelligence Service (SIN), Vladimiro Montesinos. According to complainant, the person in charge of management of the station urged him to change the news tone of his program, because otherwise the Ministry of Transport and Communication would not renew the station’s license.[35]

 

Threats and Aggressions

 

33.              On January 6, 2000, reporter Bayron Horna and cameraman Miguel Ascencios of Channel 2—Frecuencia Latina; reporter John Ariza and cameraman Dany Felipa, of Channel 9—Andean Television; and reporter Aldo Kom of Channel N were attacked with stones, glass bottles, and wooden planks while they covered a demonstration of a group of people opposed to the re-election of then President Fujimori.[36]

 

34.              On February 9, 2000, security guards of President Fujimori’s former minister Valle Riestra attacked a reporter and photographer of the daily Liberación, Jair Ramírez, who were attempting to approach Valle Riestra to ask him for statements on political issues.[37]

35.              On February 9, 2000, Gilmer Díaz, a reporter for the Municipal channel and host of the program La Revista de impacto (The Review with Impact) and José Flores Burgos, cameraman and news correspondent of Panamericana Television, were physically and verbally attacked in Jaén province, Cajamarca department, while they covered the second round of protests organized by the Committee for Defense of Consumers of Jaén, which was calling for a reduction in electricity rates by Electronorte. Also attacked were reporter John Seclén and his cameraman Manuel Pereyra, both correspondents for Channel 2—Frecuencia Latina.[38]

 

36.              On February 10, 2000, unidentified individuals broke into the installations of Channel 10, a subsidiary of Global Television, to steal valuable transmission equipment, cash and documentation of payments to the Internal Revenue Service. According to information received, the thefts occurred during the early morning hours, before the re-airing of the news program Contacto Directo (Direct Contact).

 

37.              On February 16, 2000, Teobaldo Menéndez Fachín, editor and host of the program Inédito on Radio Stacion X in Yurimaguas, Loreto department, was physically attacked and threatened with death by two unidentified individuals. According to information received, they ordered the journalist to stop criticizing Nely Salinas, a congressional candidate for Peru 2000.[39]

 

38.              On February 26, 2000, Mayor Sánchez Cabanillas verbally attacked and threatened to kill journalist Luis Villanueva López, editor and host of the news program La Voz Informativa (The Informative Voice)on Radio Los Angeles. According to information received, the program was investigating corruption by civil servants and criticized the municipal administration.[40]

 

39.              On March 5, 2000, unidentified individuals placed a bomb at the doors of the studio of Radio Junín, causing material damage to the entrance and waiting room of the station. Furthermore, the editor of Radio Junín, Jacinto Figueroa Yauri, received threatening telephone calls in February and March after he reported incidents that occurred during the general strike called by the Committee for the Defense of Junín province and criticized the activities of the government.[41]

 

40.              On March 14, 2000, journalist Luis Ugaz Espinoza of Radio Astoria was physically attacked and threatened with death. Also, on March 16, two individuals broke into the house of journalist Carlos Martínez Chávez of the same station, causing material damage.[42]

41.              On April 3, 2000, Hernán Carrión de la Cruz, editor of the news program Ancash en la Noticia (Ancash in the News), alleged that he was the target of an attack by an unidentified person who attempted to shoot him from a vehicle. The journalist attributes the failed attempt to his criticism of the government.[43]

 

42.              On April 9, 2000, a group of unidentified individuals attacked a team of journalists of Panamericana Television who were covering a demonstration in support of candidate Alejandro Toledo.[44]

 

43.              On April 30, 2000, journalist Ronald Ripa Casafranca, editor for Radio Panorama of Andahuaylas, had his life threatened after he broadcast several live reports of a peasant strike in the region and the aftermath of the demonstration.[45]

 

44.              On May 4, 2000, Uriel Meza Mayhua, a journalist with Radio Sicuani, was attacked by two employees of the Canchis province municipal government, Cusco department. According to the information received, Meza was doing a live broadcast of information about irregularities in personnel changes in the area’s Public Works Department.[46]

 

45.              On May 12, 2000, Hugo González Hinostroza, a correspondent of the daily Liberación, Omar Robles Torre, publisher of the biweekly Presencia, and Roger Luciano, a freelance photographer, were attacked by a group of employees in the sports field La Florida de Marcará, in Carhuaz province. According to information received, the aggression occurred while the journalists were taking photos and video of a demonstration of more than one hundred persons wearing t-shirts of the ruling party, Peru 2000.

 

46.              On May 29, 2000, journalist Leddy Mozombite of Radio Santa Rosa was attacked by four unidentified individuals when she was leaving the station. Five days earlier, Jaime Pedroza Ruiz of the same station was attacked by two unidentified persons. On their radio programs the two journalists had revealed alleged irregularities committed by Peru 2000.[47]

 

47.              In May of 2000, journalist Santiago González Coronado had his life threatened in Putumayo district. The journalist had reported in the daily El Popular on alleged irregularities committed by Mayor Pablo Cumary Ashanga.[48]

 

48.              On June 8, 2000, Mónica Vecco, a journalist in the investigative unit of the daily La República, received several threats. Vecco had published an investigative report alleging that the Peru 2000 alliance had used the print shop of an official who worked for the National Intelligence Service to prepare campaign advertising.[49]

 

49.              On July 4, 2000, José del Carmen Parraguez Pérez, host of the news program Analisis of Radio FVC in Nueva Cajamarca, a district in Rioja province, was the victim of physical attacks and death threats. According to information received, Parraguez had been the frequent target of death threats because of his stories about corruption in the state administration.[50]

 

50.              On July 7, 2000, Alejandro Miró Quesada, editor of the daily El Comercio, alleged yet another threat against journalists of his paper and Channel N because they had investigated and reported the falsification of signatures of supporters of the Peru 2000 Independent Front.[51]

 

51.              On July 28, 2000, a dozen journalists and several media offices were attacked during a demonstration. According to information received, Miguel Carrillo and José Tejada, of the magazine Etecé, reporter Roberto Silva of Radio Programs of Peru (RPP), Guillermo Venegas and Virgilio Grajeada of the daily La República, Fidel Carillo of the daily Liberación, Luis Choy and Carlos Lezama of the daily Ojo, Rosario Vicentell of Channel A, Paul Vanotti of the U.S. agency Public Media Center, and a team from the Colombian television channel Caracol TV were attacked by demonstrators and members of the police when they covered a demonstration organized by the opposition to protest a third presidential candidacy for Alberto Fujimori.[52] Journalist Paul Vanotti, of the news agency Public Media Center, alleged that government officials asked him to change his version of the source of the attack, which had caused serious injury. Vanotti says he was attacked with a bullet fired from a police car.[53] Miguel Carrillo Pérez del Solar, photo editor of the magazine Etece, was another of the journalists who was attacked. He was beaten while taking pictures. During the incident he lost his camera and the film he had shot.[54] On the same day, some demonstrators attacked the offices of Channel 4America Television and Radio Programs of Peru (RPP), causing material damage. The driver of a mobile unit of Channel 9ATV was attacked and the assailants partially dismantled the vehicle. During the night of June 28 to 29, a car with no license plates and tinted windows stopped twice at the door of the private Channel N. The first time, one of the occupants of the vehicle threatened the guard, and the second time, he fired four shots in the air with a weapon.[55]

 

52.              On August 17, 2000, James Beuzeville, editor and host of the program La Razón on Radio Arpegio of Iquitos, Loreto department, had his life threatened by an unidentified individual because of his criticism of tourism business executive Roberto Rotondo. According to the information received, for years Beuzeville has been a major target of threats, legal complaints, blackmail, and smear campaigns by people and institutions, including media in Iquitos, which were linked with the government of Alberto Fujimori .[56]

 

53.              In July and August of 2000 journalist Moisés Cotrina del Aguila, editor of the Síntesis de la Información program on Radio Mira in Uchiza, Tocache province, San Martín department, was threatened by two low-ranking agents of the Peruvian National Police (PNP) and received strange police summons to report to a precinct. The journalist had denounced on his program a series of irregularities and arbitrary detentions by members of the PNP.[57]

 

54.              On September 12, 2000, journalist Alexis Fiestas Quinto and photographer Víctor Granda, both with the daily El Popular, were attacked and kidnapped for two hours by people hired by the mayor of the Lima district of San Juan de Lurigancho, Ricardo Chiroque. The incident occurred when the journalists were covering a protest march by residents of a settlement who were demanding action to correct a health problem in the zone. The journalists also had their working materials confiscated.[58]

 

55.              On September 15, 2000, Juan Herrera, correspondent of Radio Cutivalú in Bellavista district, Sullana province, was attacked by unidentified persons. According to the information received, the journalist was “attacked by people believed to have been hired by district mayor Emilio Pasapera Calle,” who was under fire for allegations of serious irregularities in his administration.[59]

 

56.              On September 4, 2000, journalist Vicky Bazan Cossi, news director of Radio Rimelsa in Majes, correspondent for the daily La República and Channel Fenix in the city of Camaná, cameraman Esmeregildo Paz Pinto and assistant Alejandro Anconeyra Provincia, were physically attacked by police officers in the town of Majes. The police broke in, firing shots in the air and tear gas bombs, and the scenes were captured on the journalists’ film.[60]

57.              On October 13, 2000, journalists César Ascues Uribe, of the daily Liberación, and César Romero Calle of the daily La República, alleged that they received telephone death threats because of their journalistic investigations that implicated high government officials.[61]

 

58.              On October 16, 2000, unidentified individuals attacked the offices of Panamericana Television 24 hours after it broadcast a news report on excessive violence by police during a public protest march in the city of Tacna. The attackers took all the equipment from the editing room.[62]

 

59.              On October 10, 2000, Jara Montejo, correspondent of the Coordinadora Nacional de la Radio (National Radio Coordinator) (CNR) and of the Diario Regional de Huánuco, was wounded in the right leg by the impact of a teargas bomb fired by a police officer. The journalist was covering a protest of agricultural workers of the Acayacu district in the Huanuco department.[63]

 

60.              On October 25, 2000, journalist José del Carmen Parraguez Pérez, host of the radio news program Analisis of Radio FVC, in Nueva Cajamarca, was attacked by eight unidentified individuals. Days before the attack, the victimized journalist had been urged by a group of other unidentified individuals to give up his journalistic work and his continuous denunciations of state corruption.[64]

 

61.              On October 27, 2000, journalist Sebastián Castro Mendoza, editor and host of the news program Despertar Campesino (Farmers’ Wakeup) of Channel 11 and Radio San Sebastián, in the city of Chepén, was threatened with death by Victor Izquierdo de la Cruz, president of the Rice Producers’ Association and then-governor of the district of Guadalupe. According to the information received, the journalist had been reporting on irregularities in the Rice Producers’ Association in the Valley of Jequetepeque.[65]

 

62.              On November 15, 2000, Willy Zárate Araujo, a photographer for the daily El Tío, was physically attacked by a group of police who fired a tear gas bomb during a street demonstration. The incident occurred while Zárate Araujo was using his camera to record the violent repression meted out to the demonstrators.[66]

 

 

 

63.              On November 13, 2000, Eduardo Geovanni Acate Coronel, host of the program El Estelar of Radio Oriente in San Lorenzo, Loreto department, alleged that he was attacked verbally and threatened by the governor of Barranca district, Héctor Huansi. The aggression occurred while Acate was interviewing the official.[67]

 

64.              On November 16, 2000, journalist Roxana Aquino Garcia, a reporter of Radio Lider in Arequipa, was physically attacked and threatened by unidentified individuals presumably linked to Manuel Saiki Rios, treasurer of the Melgar club of the first division of Peruvian professional soccer. Aquino had blown the whistle several times against the treasurer of the club in recent months.[68]

 

65.              On December 2, 2000, a fire destroyed the entire installations of the transmitter of Radio Super Continental 1480 AM, a station in Chulucanas province, in Piura. The incident occurred at dawn. The attackers doused the cabin of the transmitter with gasoline after the station aired investigative reports on irregularities in the local government of Chulucanas.[69]

 

66.              On December 12, 2000, Angela Talledo, a photographer for the daily Liberación, was attacked by the mayor of the Chaclacayo district of Lima, Delia Vergara (linked with the Fujimori movement Vamos Vecinos (Let’s Go, Neighbors), while she was carrying out her journalistic duties in the Palace of Justice. When Angela Talledo recognized the mayor, she began photographing her. Delia Vergara repeatedly struck the journalist with a leather jacket and injured her on the arm. On the night of the same day, the reporter was victim of a strange robbery in which she lost her photographic equipment. An unidentified person threatened her with a weapon and stole her camera.[70]

ASSASINATION  OF JOURNALISTS IN 2000

 



[1]Journalist Gustavo Mohme Llona, director of La Republica newspaper died on April 23, 2000.

[2] IPYS.

[3] Id.

[4]International Federation of Journalists/IFEX.

[5] CPJ.

[6] IPYS.

[7] Id.

[8] Id.

[9] Id.

[10] Id.

[11] Id.

[12] Id.

[13]Reporters without Borders.

[14] IPYS.

[15] Id.

[16] Id.

[17] World Press Freedom Committee (WPFC).

[18] Id.

[19] Id.

[20] National Association of Journalists of Peru.

[21] IPYS.

[22] Id.

[23] Id.

[24]International Federation of Journalists (FIP).

[25] IPYS.

[26]International Federation of Journalists (FIP).

[27] IPYS.

[28] Id.

[29] Id.

[30] Id.

[31] Id.

[32] Id.

[33] Id.

[34] CPJ.

[35]International Federation of Journalists (FIP).

[36] Id.

[37] IPYS.

[38] Id.

[39] Id.

[40] Id.

[41]International Federation of Journalists (FIP), Lima, Peru.

[42] IPYS.

[43] Id.

[44] Id.

[45] Id.

[46] Id.

[47] Id.

[48] Id.

[49] IPYS.

[50]International Federation of Journalists (FIP).

[51] Id.

[52]Reporters without Borders (RSF).

[53] IFEX.

[54] Id.

[55] Id.

[56] IPYS.

[57] Id.

[58] Id.

[59] IAPA.

[60]International Federation of Journalists.

[61] Id.

[62] Id.

[63] Id.

[64] Id.

[65] IFEX.

[66]IPYS/IFEX.

[67] IPYS.

[68] Id.

[69] Id.

[70] Id.