Continued hostility toward journalists attributed to National Intelligence Service

(IPYS/IFEX) – According to IPYS, various sensationalist publications continue to publish defamatory information about representatives of the independent press. The campaign, if it is being inspired and financed by state organizations as has been reported, would be another symptom of the precarious situation of press freedom in the country. This campaign is of concern not […]

(IPYS/IFEX) – According to IPYS, various sensationalist publications
continue to publish defamatory information about representatives of the
independent press. The campaign, if it is being inspired and financed by
state organizations as has been reported, would be another symptom of the
precarious situation of press freedom in the country.

This campaign is of concern not so much because the information and opinions
being expressed in the publications are incorrect or defamatory (which they
are, says IPYS), since the exercise of freedom to inform or express an
opinion is regulated by law and those effected have the right to defend
themselves through legal means. Rather, the alert is justified because there
seems to be a basis for the claims that the military intelligence
services, headed by the National Intelligence Service (SIN), are using
certain publications to harass journalists who they consider to be in
opposition to the regime.

There is also a basis for the presumption that this harassment may be part
of a plan of aggression against media that are considered to be in
opposition. Thus, after a successful operation in 1997 against the
television station Frecuencia Latina, which ended with its owner Baruch
Ivcher losing his Peruvian citizenship and his shares in the company, there
may now be a campaign being prepared against the principal owner and
journalists of the opposition daily “La Republica” (see IFEX alerts).

The following facts should be highlighted:

1. The articles published simultaneously in various publications all come
from the same source, as shown by the similar style, common themes, and in
some cases, the exact repetition of paragraphs and accusations. It is also
evident that the authors have government connections.

2. The source, as well as being official, is military. This is evident from
the military terminology used, especially the accusation that the
journalists are “traitors to the nation.”
As in the campaign against Frecuencia Latina, in which smaller media acted
in concert with the authors of the attack, the charges are being made in the
supposed defense of
patriotic values.

3. The publications present unequivocal signs that the journalists being
attacked have been under systematic surveillance in their personal and
professional activities. This kind of surveillance has become a regular
activity of the intelligence services, according to the continuing reports
and the evidence of the tapping of the phones of journalists, which is now
being investigated by the Congress and the Judiciary. In some cases, the
contents of the articles show what appear to be literal transcriptions from
intelligence files, especially when they refer to the past activities of the
journalists.

4. There is evidence that some of the journalists being attacked have been
the object of telephone surveillance, to the extent that one of the
publications has tried to prevent the future publication in the newspaper
“La Republica” of a photo of intelligence agent Luisa Zanatta in a telephone
interception centre.

5. There is a campaign underway. The first journalists who were attacked
were Frenando Rospigliosi, Angel Paez, Edmundo Cruz and Jose Arrieta. On 13
April 1998, the official paper “El Chino” published an 8-page supplement
which set out to discredit Gustavo Mohme, opposition Congress representative
and owner of “La Republica.” The publications continue.

These events, situated in the context of a Judiciary and Public Ministry
which do not have the necessary independence to defend people or
institutions in conflict with the government, put the journalists who find
themselves targets of the SIN in a position of great risk.

The antecedents indicate that the risks to personal security are high.
Members of the Army Intelligence Services dynamited the offices of Global TV
and Radio Samoa in Puno. As well, the revelations made in 1995 about a plan
to intimidate media and journalists considered to be in the opposition
turned out to be true, when two former Army Intelligence agents confirmed
the existence of an operation to assassinate journalist Cesar Hildebrandt.

The lack of security guarantees has forced journalist Jose Arrieta, former
chief of the Investigative Unit of Frecuencia Latina, to leave Peru and ask
for political asylum in the United States. Several days ago, the head of the
investigative unit at “La Republica” reported that he had received death
threats.

While IPYS has requested appeals to the Peruvian authorities regarding these
specific cases, it is now requesting appeals denouncing the general
situation described here.

Recommended Action

Ing. Alberto Fujimori

President of the Republic

Fax: +51 14 266770

Dr. Jorge Santistevan

Ombudsman

Fax: +51 14 267889
Carlos Torres y Torres Lara

President of Congress

Fax: +51 14 265053