2023-09-17 20:38:00
Trade union organizations warned about Boluarte’s attempts to censor the press
The Peruvian government’s measures to fight insecurity could include chapters that affect the right to protest and freedom of expression, union organizations warned amid a climate of alert that has been established in the country.
“The Executive Branch intends to criminalize people who demonstrate in favor of the protests,” said lawyer Roberto Pereira, legal advisor to the Press and Society Institute (IPYS), a civil organization that fights for the rights of journalism.
The debate has intensified since Friday, when The Constitutional Commission of Congress approved with 18 votes to four a text that allows the judicial prosecution of “communicators” who “incite” with their information to acts of protest that lead to violence.
“For us it is clear that what we are looking for is to limit coverage as much as possible,” said the president of the National Association of Journalists. (ANP), Zuliana Lainezwho recalled that previously the government of President Dina Boluarte tried to impose cuts in journalistic activity.
The opinion, which to become effective must be ratified by the full Congress, something that could potentially occur given the correlation of forces, is part of the study carried out by Parliament on a request for extraordinary legislative powers raised by the Executive to adopt measures against The insecurity.
In this request for powers, which aims to speed up the adoption of tools to confront crime, the initiative to modify the Penal Code to be able to bring journalists to court was introduced, “smuggled” in Lainez’s words.
For entities such as the ANP, the IPYS and the Peruvian Press Council, with solidarity from the Inter-American Press Society, if the proposal is approved, a large area will be created in which information activity will be at the subjective discretion of those in charge of dispensing justice. .
“The dangerous thing is that the word ‘incite’ is directly linked to the word ‘call,’” Lainez stressed.. Thus, a journalist who has reported in the media about the holding of a protest could be exposed to prosecution for “incitement” if such act degenerates into violence.
In the midst of the scandal, the Prime Minister, Alberto Otárola, assured that the government does not want to impose restrictions on press freedom, but did not raise the possibility of that point being removed from the request for powers.
???? #NativaAFondo || Zuliana Lainez: “At the ANP we are concerned about the series of attacks on the press”
The president of the ANP (@ANP_journalists) expressed its concern about the constant attack on press freedom.
Full interview here: https://t.co/GIVJEJxVDv pic.twitter.com/bD1InR4fvV
— Nativa (@somosnativa) September 17, 2023
“Once again we confirm that there is no relationship between what is declared and what is done; We say it clearly: that will criminalize journalistic activity,” said Lainez, for whom the only possibility of putting an end to the doubts is to eliminate that point.
“Approving it like this and giving powers to the Executive along these lines would be harmful not only to the exercise of freedom of expression, but also a lethal blow to freedom of the press in this country and to democracy,” added the union leader at a press conference.
Congress, controlled by forces that support Boluarte’s management, analyzes the request for extraordinary powers, presented by the Executive in the context of an exponential growth in crime that has become one of the greatest sources of citizen concern.
Figures that have always existed in Peru but have grown significantly in recent times, such as assaults or extortion, have been joined by others that were very sporadic and are now a daily occurrence, such as, for example, hitmen.
The Boluarte government did not give further details about what it intends to do with the extraordinary powers and limited itself to pointing out that it will follow its own path, thereby ruling out the possibility of copies of policies from other countries.like that of El Salvador with President Nayib Bukele.
This demarcation was necessary after spokespersons for right-wing parties that support the government praised Bukele in chorus despite criticism from human rights groups, and that Otárola himself and the president of the Supreme Court, Javier Arévalo, expressed their opinion. They were apparently open in statements to copying aspects of the model.
The uproar over the alleged intentions to limit press freedom occurred at a time when in vast sectors of Peru there is marked unrest over the apparent desire of the government and Congress to take over all institutions to continue with control even beyond the end of the period in 2026.
On Saturday, protests reappeared, when hundreds of citizens walked the streets of Lima to reject the alleged intention of Congress to expand its powers through an offensive against the National Board of Justice, the entity that appoints judges and prosecutors and that monitors and eventually sanctions them and the heads of the electoral organizations. Everything passed peacefully.
Peru has been the scene of protests against the government and Congress since the December ouster of President Pedro Castillo and his replacement by Boluarte. The trigger was that the new president announced that she would continue until 2026, ignoring a clamor, of more than 90% according to polls, for early elections for an immediate change.
In the first three months, the mobilizations left 49 direct deaths and 77 in total, while national and international organizations, including the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, reported excesses by public forces and extrajudicial executions.
In the documentation of the reported excesses, the photographic and video material provided by the press was decisive, which, in the opinion of the union leaders, motivates the current attempt to limit it.
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