Peru

WHEREAS on March 21, 2014 journalist César Quino Escudero of Canal 55 television in Chimbote, Ancash province, was given a suspended sentence of one year in prison on a charge of aggravated defamation of César Álvarez Aguilar, Ancash provincial president, and journalists Santos Paredes García and Noé García Velasquez have also been accused WHEREAS currently there are 15 charges of aggravated defamation filed by businessman Rodolfo Orellana Rengifo and retired National Police colonel Benedicto Jiménez Baca, his former lawyer, against the editor of the magazine Caretas, Marco Zileri Dougall, chairman of the board Enrique Zileri Gibson, journalist Américo Zambrano, the head of the Investigation Unit and news editor Eduardo García WHEREAS currently 13 lawsuits have been filed against executives and journalists of the newspapers El Comercio, Perú21 and Trome by officials of the executive branch, judges, a mayor, a member of Congress, the brother of the Peruvian president and even a suspected hitman; among the executives being sued are Fritz Du Bois, editor of El Comercio, with six lawsuits against him as former editor of Perú21, and Carlos Espinoza Olcay, editor of Trome, with one lawsuit against him. In addition, among those being sued are three journalists (Rolando Chumpitzi Vilchez, Elizabeth Milagros Salazar Vega and José Oscar Castilla Contreras), an executive of El Comercio (Francisco Miró Quesada Cantuarias) and three journalists of Perú21 (Yazmym Zarella Sierra Peralta, Gessler Ojeda Mercado and Daniel Renato Yovera Soto) WHEREAS three lawsuits have been filed against journalist Rosana Cueva, director and host of the Panamericana Televisión program “Panorama,” and against journalists of that program: Augusto Thorndike del Campo and Marco Vásquez Centurión. In addition, Fernando Valencia and Diego Hernández, editor and reporter of Diario 16, respectively, were sued by member of Congress Julio Gagó Pérez WHEREAS on October 13, 2006 judges of the Supreme Court’s Permanent and Transitory Courts approved Plenary Accord No. 3-2006/CJ-116 “Crimes against the personal honor and constitutional right to freedom of expression and of information,” in which are set criteria for resolving a clash that can be presented between “the offense against honor – constitutional protection of honor and reputation – and the constitutional right to freedom of expression” WHEREAS there persists within the framework of Peru’s justice system the erratic filing of lawsuits against journalists and news media in reprisal for the dissemination of information, which can be interpreted as a dangerous violation of press freedom in the country. THE IAPA RESOLVES to ask Dr. Enrique Mendoza Ramírez, head of the judicial branch of government, to ensure that judges correctly apply existing norms so as to prevent journalists from being convicted as a form of reprisal for having disseminated information to ask Dr. Enrique Mendoza Ramírez, head of the judicial branch of government, to send to the judges of the judiciary Plenary Accord No. 3-2006/CJ-116, indicating that it is a binding precedent.