Miami (June 11, 2021).- The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) condemned the harassment against the newspaper La República and its director, Gustavo Mohme, by followers of the presidential candidate of the Fuerza Popular party, Keiko Fujimori. The organization urged the candidate to instruct her supporters to stop the harassment and held her responsible "for a possible escalation of violence."
Fujimori supporters are calling through social media to hold a "sit-in" this afternoon in front of Mohme's home, under the slogan "no to the lying, corrupt and communist press." Given the uncertainty about the result of the elections last Sunday, the Fujimori supporters also convened themselves last night at the home of the president of the National Board of Elections, Jorge Luis Salas Arenas.
The president of the IAPA, Jorge Canahuati, of the OPSA media group in Honduras, condemned the harassment against Mohme and expressed his fear that the protest could lead to violent actions against the publisher of La República and his family. "Ms. Fujimori will have to take responsibility for a possible escalation of violence," he said.
Carlos Jornet, head of the IAPA's Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, director of the newspaper La Voz del Interior, from Argentina, said that this type of harassment or "escraches" (noisy demonstrations) against the media and journalists "reveals the lack of democratic vocation of those groups or individuals who refuse to acknowledge that freedom of the press and of expression is nourished by the plurality and diversity of editorial criteria in the media."
Canahuati and Jornet recognized the trajectory of the newspaper La República and its director, attached to principles of quality, freedom and independence during the different political periods that the country has had to go through.
IAPA is a non-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 publications from the western hemisphere; and is based in Miami, Florida, United States.
