Peru

Due to journalistic investigations of corruption, President Pedro Castillo has threatened to sue journalists and prevented them from entering public events and press conferences.

In May, after an accusation that he had plagiarized his master's thesis, President Castillo said that the press lends itself to "particular and anti-democratic interests," seeks to "generate political instability" and is "colluding with certain power groups and pro-coup sectors."

A few weeks later, the Executive submitted a bill to Congress to create the crime of dissemination of confidential information. The aggrieved parties, defendants, lawyers, representatives, judges, prosecutors or police officers who disseminate -before the trial - confidential information to "non-legitimate persons" could be punished with up to four years in prison.

Prime Minister Aníbal Torres said in a YouTube channel that "most of the press, especially that of the Capital, misinforms and de-contextualizes the information. It has adopted the mechanism used by Mussolini in Italy, fascism; used by Hitler in Germany, Nazism. They have adopted the policies of these two characters: to use lies as the best instrument to destroy the adversary."

During his presidential message one year after taking office, the president again attacked the press - accusing it of seeking instability in his government. He also pointed out that the media "only tell lies and spread false news" - in reference to the television program Panorama which reported on acts of government corruption.

In September, a group of police officers held - without justification - a team of Exitosa Noticias covering an eviction in Lurin, south of Lima.

In mid-October - in presence of the international press - the government prevented the national press from attending a press conference at the Government Palace in which the president defended himself against a complaint made by the Attorney General's Office for alleged acts of corruption.

In August, congressman Segundo Toribio Montalvo Cubas presented two bills bad for freedom of expression. In one of them, he promoted an increase in the prison term of up to five years in cases of defamation. In another, he wanted the electronic media to grant free space to the elected authorities of the central, regional and local governments.

In May, the prosecutor's office summoned journalist Ernesto Cabral to testify in a case regarding audios related to the Lava Jato case and La Centralita - in which the mishandling of anti-corruption prosecutors is exposed. The report, which was published in 2019, revealed irregular coordination between the defendant Martin Belaunde Lossio and two prosecutors. The prosecutor's office requested the suspension of the journalist's professional secrecy.

In September, prosecutor Fyorella Montero Talledo demanded the news program D-Bate Noticias, of Piura TV Canal, to reveal the identity of a source who participated in a program broadcast a year earlier in which alleged irregularities in road concessions and collection of bribes by an official of the Municipality of Piura, Boris Manuel Gutiérrez Castillo, were revealed.

The regional and municipal election campaign was the scene of several attacks on journalists both by the candidates themselves and by their supporters and relatives. Three episodes of retention of journalists were reported.

In April, journalists from the Amazonas region Teobaldo Meléndez and Maricruz Torrejón - hosts of the program Total Noticias - were sued by prosecutor Celia Llesenia Delmar Pezo. The journalists questioned the fact that Delmar shelved cases of rape of minors in the region - in which a public official and a policeman were allegedly involved.

La República journalist Raúl Cabrera Ramos, who was covering the eviction of Fuerabamba community members from the property of the MMG Las Bambas company, was detained by the police and had his work equipment seized.

In June, journalist Patricia Hoyos - of Centro Liber - said that the governor of Ica sent emissaries to her house to harass and intimidate her.

In July, two journalists of the program Cuarto Poder, of América TV, and their driver were detained for five hours by peasant patrols in the district of Chadín, in the province of Chota, Cajamarca. The reporters had been doing a report in the area about President Castillo's sister-in-law - who was apparently offering public sanitation works without being a public official. Between 40 and 50 ronderos forced the journalists to retract their statements - which they read on América TV.

In September, the State Contracting Tribunal of the State Contracting Supervisory Body (OSCE) issued two sanctions of disqualification from contracting State advertising for four and five months to Grupo La República (GLR). The OSCE attributes to GLR to have violated Law 30225 when Claudia Cornejo Mohme, daughter of María Eugenia Mohme, shareholder of GLR, was Minister of Tourism and Foreign Trade. According to the OSCE, the company owned by a relative of a minister would have contracted advertising with the State - which would be outside the law. However, a ruling of the Constitutional Court states that "the prohibition to contract with the State is only universal and general for direct relatives and up to the second degree of the President of the Republic."

The prosecutor of the Ministry of Women, Miguel Méndez Maúrtua, sent notarized letters to the journalist Bruno Amoretti, of the digital native media El Foco, author of a report on aggressions by officials of the Ministry against former female workers, and to the president of this media, Eloy Marchán.

Former congressman José Luna Morales sent a notarized letter to journalist Josefina Townsend, moderator of the Lima municipal debate prior to the regional elections. Townsend asked then candidate Daniel Urresti what would happen if he was convicted for the murder of journalist Hugo Bustíos - considering that his candidate for deputy mayor, Luna Morales, had a suspended investigation for being a member of a criminal organization.

The hosts of the Cusco radio station Inti Raymi were physically assaulted by the wife and daughters of Ricardo Cavero Cárdenas - candidate for the Municipality of Paucartambo - while they were broadcasting their program live. The women injured one of the conductors and smashed furniture and equipment.

The Supreme Court ruled that a criminal judge cannot limit the exercise of freedom of expression and the right to political participation of a citizen involved in an investigation. Thus, the court declared null and void the restrictions imposed against former president Pedro Pablo Kuczynski - who was forbidden to make statements to the press and to carry out direct or indirect political activities. This resolution sets a precedent for others investigated in the Lava Jato case, such as Ollanta Humala and Keiko Fujimori - who are also restricted from speaking to the press and participating politically.

The case of the murder of Melissa Alfaro Méndez - a journalism student and intern at Cambio magazine, critical of Alberto Fujimori's regime - was submitted to the IACHR. October marked the 31st anniversary of the crime. Alfaro died after opening a newspaper containing a military-grade explosive.