Bolivia's Communications Minister has attempted to smear journalist Raúl Peñaranda, who wrote a book about government efforts to gain control over independent media outlets.
The following is a CPJ Blog post by John Otis, CPJ Andes Correspondent:
At a bizarre news conference in April, Bolivia’s Communications Minister Amanda Dávila claimed that journalist Raúl Peñaranda, who was born in Chile, represented a dangerous “beachhead” for Chilean interests trying to deny landlocked Bolivia access to the Pacific.
Dávila’s remarks were denounced by critics as xenophobic. Peñaranda has lived in Bolivia since he was 11 months old and is a widely respected author, a former Nieman journalism fellow at Harvard University, and the former editor of the La Paz daily Página Siete.
Read the full story on CPJ’s site.
