Miami (August 20, 2010)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today hailed the Peruvian government’s decision to reinstate the broadcast license of radio station La Voz de Bagua suspended last year. The organization called the action a strong show of respect for freedom of expression.
Yesterday the Transport and Communications Ministry overturned a June 8, 2009 resolution ordering the radio off the air following violent indigenous protests during which 24 police officers and 10 civilians were killed. The government accused the radio’s director, Carlos Flores, with charges of sedition and inciting violence which were discarded by the justice system, but the radio continued shut down under alleged operational and mechanical irregularities.
After restoring the license the Ministry gave the station 60 days to resolve its problems after authorizing it to resume broadcasting today.
IAPA President Alejandro Aguirre, editor of the Miami, Florida, Spanish-language newspaper Diario Las Américas, expressed his “satisfaction at a decision to lift the sanction against the radio station.” He recalled that Peru’s President Alan García promised to look into the administrative proceedings that resulted in the suspension of the station’s broadcast license during a meeting in May this year with members of an international IAPA delegation. At the time the IAPA also met with the station’s attorneys and owners.
Robert Rivard, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information and editor of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, added his congratulations for the resumed broadcasts and praised the solidarity and efforts by various national press organizations on behalf of the radio station, principally the Peruvian Press Council.
The IAPA is a not-for-profit organization dedicated to the defense and promotion of freedom of the press and of expression in the Americas. It is made up of more than 1,300 print publications from throughout the Western Hemisphere and is based in Miami, Florida. For more information please go to http://www.sipiapa.org; http://www.impunidad.com
