Peru

PERU Journalists and the media continue to be the target of terrorist violence in Peru. The Expresa newspaper plant was attacked for the second time at the end of March by terrorists who set off a bomb. Three radio stations have been attacked by terrorist groups seeking to broadcast their propaganda. Another three were bombed. Panamericana Television was forced to transmit a lO-minute declaration by the terrorist group Tupac Amaru as one of the conditions for the liberation of Hector Delgado Parker, chairman of the television group, who was freed two days later. The terrorists also dynamited state-owned Channel 7's signal repeating station in the city of Huaraz in May. In June, television channel 11, owned by Lima Mayor Ricardo Belmont, was the target of two bombings. In March, a UPI security guard thwarted an attack on the agency's offices. At the end of July, the DPA office was taken over by terrorists. They transmitted a proclamation that was blocked by the central communications center and did not reach client newspapers. Government security forces sometimes commit excesses that threaten freedom of information and on occasion have put journalists at risk. In early September, correspondents Fernando Zevallos of El Camerda, Alejandro Zevallos of Onda and Luis Ursula of Oja, among others, were threatened at gunpoint by police in the city of Huiinuco. They were covering allegations of police corruption. In July, heavily-armed national police raided Oiga magazine after it reported charges of graft against a top police officer. The magazine reported it was still under police surveillance in mid-October. In May, journalist Cesar Hildebrandt was subjected to humiliating treatment in a military court after he was called to testify about tape recordings of telephone conversations of the Air Force commander. The recordings, supplied by an intelligence officer, hinted at inappropriate conduct by the commander. Two publications allegedly sympathetic to the terrorists' cause, Cambia and El Diaria, have denounced the confiscation of two editions. The official justification for these actions was that they were guilty of supporting the crime of terrorism. Visnews correspondent Carlos Valdez was called to testify before the anti-terrorist police after a report of his was intercepted. The Foreign Press Association of Peru protested. The Inter-American Court of Human Rights gave the Peruvian government a 30-day deadline in which to guarantee the safety of witnesses to the 1988 assassination of Caretas magazine journalist Hugo Bustios. The court order came as a result of the killing of a key witnesses in the case. On July 28, President Fujimori took office and in his inauguration speech emphasized his intention to respect freedom of the press. However, the nomination of Jorge Sosa Miranda as head of the National System of Social Communication (SINACOSA) has caused concern because of Sosa's involvement in the confiscation of media during the military dictatorship. Nevertheless, the government has proposed dismantling SINACOSA. As part of its program to combat the country's economic crisis, the government canceled all customs and tax exemptions that had benefited the media. Newsprint is now subject to a 25 per cent import duty plus 10 per cent on CIF costs. All types of preferential dollar exchange rates have also been eliminated, meaning the media must now buy newsprint and other imported supplies at the official exchange rates. Inland newspapers are finding themselves particularly hard-hit financially. An order from the Executive Branch in August clamped a 14 per cent tax on newspaper sales, forcing provincial papers to raise their cover price to cover the new cost. The tax was therefore seen by some papers as a threat to the right of information.