(IPYS/IFEX) – On 25 May 2005, journalists Jerónimo Centurión and Paola Bazán, of the Lima-based television programme “La Ventana Indiscreta”, were taken into custody by police as they were leaving one of the Congress buildings, and taken to a police station where they were kept for seven hours. They were detained after they videotaped, without […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 25 May 2005, journalists Jerónimo Centurión and Paola Bazán, of the Lima-based television programme “La Ventana Indiscreta”, were taken into custody by police as they were leaving one of the Congress buildings, and taken to a police station where they were kept for seven hours. They were detained after they videotaped, without authorisation, documents they found piled up in the reception area of a ruling party congressman’s office.
Centurión and Bazán told IPYS that the police never informed them why they had been detained and taken to the police station. The police confirmed this when asked by IPYS.
In the course of an investigation the journalists entered the reception area the congressman’s office, after having obtained authorisation to enter a different part of the building. They identified themselves to a secretary and then proceeded to videotape the documents. IPYS does not condone such practices. However, the reporters’ misdemeanour cannot be classified as a crime, and therefore there is no justification for them having been detained.
During the seven hours they were kept at the police station, the journalists were obliged to explain what they had been doing, without having been told if they had done anything wrong. The police insisted at all times that Centurión and Bazán were not actually being detained.
