Peru

WHEREAS the court cases involving media company owners charged with being accessories to corruption during the regime of Alberto Fujimori have proceeded at an extremely slow pace WHEREAS the performance of the judiciary has been erratic in the case involving shareholders of Panamericana TV Canal 5, which also affects the reporters at that station WHEREAS Congressman Jorge Mufarech has filed a defamation lawsuit against the newspaper El Comercio for damages of $50 million, and the court has levied an attachment in that case WHEREAS the fact that the court did not set a specific amount leaves open the possibility that it could be enough to endanger the operations of El Comercio and even affect its viability WHEREAS Principle 10 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states: “No news medium nor journalist may be punished for publishing the truth or criticizing or denouncing the government” THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE IAPA RESOLVES to urge the Chief Justice of the Peruvian Supreme Court, Hugo Sivina Hurtado, to tell the judges involved in the court cases the following they should provide the necessary guarantees to ensure that court cases involving journalists and media companies are decided quickly to prevent them from continuing to affect the due process that every citizen is entitled to the judges in the case of Panamericana Televisión that court decisions must be consistent with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Charter of the OAS and the Declaration of Chapultepec, which guarantee unrestricted freedom of expression under a democratic system to conduct the case of Congressman Jorge Mufarech and El Comercio without disturbing the newspaper’s operation.