Peru

WHEREAS on October 29 José Alejandro Godoy, a journalist and editor of the blog www.desdeeltercerpiso.com, was sentenced by Judge Flor La Rosa La Rosa of the 33rd Criminal Division of the Lima Higher Court to the maximum penalty that can be imposed on a charge of aggravated defamation based on a formal complaint made in 2009 by former minister and member of Congress Jorge Mufarech concerning the publication on the blog of an article that referred to denunciations of wrongdoing during his term in office through links to news items published in other media; WHEREAS Judge La Rosa La Rosa included in the non-legally-supported ruling, which declared all the plaintiff’s assertions to be valid, an excessive penalty – three years of personal freedom (suspended), payment of 300,000 soles ($107,000) and 120 days of community work; WHEREAS Godoy demonstrated due diligence by citing the sources and offered Mufarech the right of reply, which indicated that he was merely reporting impartially, showing clearly that the sentence was unconstitutional and amounted to an obvious and unprecedented attack upon freedom of expression; WHEREAS the ruling of the Constitutional Court that earlier this year despite two contrary sentences ordered summary proceedings to be conducted aimed at the confiscation and distribution of the book “Fraude es tres letras: LAP” (Three-Letter Fraud) by La Primera newspaper columnist Raúl Wiener, based on a 2005 investigative report by him, represents a clear example of prior censorship WHEREAS Principle 5 of the Declaration of Chapultepec states “Prior censorship, restrictions on the circulation of the media or dissemination of their reports, forced publication of information, the imposition of obstacles to the free flow of news, and restrictions on the activities and movements of journalists directly contradict freedom of the press” ao livre fluxo informativo e as limitações ao livre exercício e movimentação dos jornalistas se opõem diretamente à liberdade de imprensa”. THE IAPA GENERAL ASSEMBLY RESOLVES to ask the president of the Office of Control of Judgeships (OCMA), Enrique Mendoza, to have an investigation made into alleged wrongdoing concerning the disproportionate and unconstitutional sentencing of José Alejandro Godoy, journalist and editor of the political blog desdeeltercerpiso.com, handed down by Judge Flor La Rosa La Rosa of the 33rd Criminal Division of the Lima Higher Court; to ask the Peruvian judicial senior authorities to reconsider and leave without effect any impediment to the unfettered distribution of the book “Fraude es tres letras: LAP” (Three-Letter Fraud), on the grounds that it would set a dangerous precedent for freedom of expression in Peru.