(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is alarmed about a defamation campaign being waged against Gustavo Gorriti, the Peruvian-born associate editor of the leading Panama City daily “La Prensa”. Earlier this month, a mysterious organization called the “Committee for Freedom of Expression in Panama” put up posters all around Panama City that showed Gorriti’s face with the slogan, […]
(CPJ/IFEX) – CPJ is alarmed about a defamation campaign being waged against
Gustavo Gorriti, the Peruvian-born associate editor of the leading Panama
City daily “La Prensa”.
Earlier this month, a mysterious organization called the “Committee for
Freedom of Expression in Panama” put up posters all around Panama City that
showed Gorriti’s face with the slogan, “Get to know the assassin of press
freedom in Panama.” While a labor dispute at the newspaper is the catalyst
for the latest attacks, many powerful Panamanians resent Gorriti because of
his hard-hitting investigative journalism.
Gorriti, a Peruvian national, has been branded as a foreign spy and as “an
unreliable person predisposed to treason.” The irrational, xenophobic tone
of the attacks has led many, including CPJ, to fear for Gorriti’s safety.
The campaign against Gorriti apparently started after “La Prensa” published
a series of articles in early August, revealing highly suspicious links
between Panamanian Attorney General José Antonio Sossa, two U.S. drug
traffickers, a former U.S. citizen named Marc Harris who is now a
naturalized Panamanian, and local lawyer Carlos Jones. “La Prensa” reported
that Harris was doing business with the drug traffickers; that Jones had
carried out several illicit transactions on behalf of Harris; and that Sossa
had refused to comply with an FBI request to investigate links between
Harris and the drug traffickers.
Since then, according to “La Prensa”, other Panamanian journalists have been
offered money to write negative articles about the paper. Sossa, whose
alleged corruption has frequently been covered by “La Prensa”, publicly
accuses Gorriti of waging “a campaign of loss of prestige and lies” against
him. And the Independent Lawyers’ Association, which is headed by Jones, has
declared Gorriti a persona non grata and asked him to leave the country.
Jones himself has been
quoted in the local press as saying “Gorriti is more than a journalist, he’s
an infiltrated agent disguised as a journalist.”
In a 15 October 1999 television interview, Gorriti accused Sossa and Harris
of orchestrating the campaign, along with Nicolás González Revilla, the
cousin of former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares. Both have been on the
receiving end of “La Prensa”‘s investigative reporting.
