MIAMI, Florida (December 3, 2015)—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today joined the Access Info Europe (AIE) organization in filing an Amicus Curiae (friend of the court) brief to the courts in Peru in support of a request for access to official e-mails of a former minister formally made by the Centro de Información Abierta Liber (Centro Liber) – the Liber Open Information Center.
The Centro Liber, a not-for-profit civil association created in 2014 to promote the strengthening of freedom of information and of expression and the right to access to public information, filed a habeas data appeal against the Energy and Mines Minister seeking access to the official e-mails of Eleodoro Mayorga Alba, the minister who left the post in February this year. Some e-mails between Mayorga and the Environment Minister on possible conflicts of interest and wrongdoing between the government and the Karoon oil company had already been published in the press. The Centro Liber is calling for transparency of the entire exchange. A ruling in its favor was appealed by the Energy and Mines Ministry.
IAPA President Pierre Manigualt, publisher of the Charleston, South Carolina, newspaper The Post and Courier, explained that in the document submitted on December 2 to the Lima High Court's Civil Tribunal "we are supporting the opening up and transparency of all information about matters of public interest, based on international principles, legislation and experience that appertain to the people's right to know, something essential in a democracy."
Peru has since 2013 the Law on Access to Public Information, which includes a clause that defines as a document any format, including digital.
The chairman of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Claudio Paolillo, editor of the Montevideo, Uruguay, weekly Búsqueda, declared, "We understand that it is part of our responsibility to back this case, which could set a precedent regarding access to public information in the country, it being the first time that there is demanded before the courts the citizens' right to access to a civil servant's official e-mails."
The amicus curiae (http://www/sipiapa.org/notas/1201863-amicus-curiae) refers to the lawsuit currently underway that dates back to a request made by the Centro Liber in August 2014 to review all the e-mails sent from and received by former minister Mayorga's account concerning the enactment of a new hydrocarbons regulation.
The IAPA and Access Info Europe supplied the court with legal considerations regarding access to information through the use of Amicus Curiae with the intent of contributing to the promotion of transparency and keeping a watchdog role over those in power by civil society.
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.
