(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 9 November 2006 IAPA press release: IAPA concerned at arraignment of Uruguayan journalist in Miami court MIAMI, Florida (November 9, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern and said it would keep a close watch on the case of Uruguayan journalist Martín Sarthou, arraigned by […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 9 November 2006 IAPA press release:
IAPA concerned at arraignment of Uruguayan journalist in Miami court
MIAMI, Florida (November 9, 2006) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern and said it would keep a close watch on the case of Uruguayan journalist Martín Sarthou, arraigned by a federal judge in Miami to answer charges of disseminating photos he had allegedly taken in court without permission during a hearing on the request for extradition of a banker said to be involved in a multi-million-dollar fraud in the South American country.
Sarthou, who works for the Montevideo commercial television station Teledoce, was sent to Miami to cover the hearing requested by Uruguayan courts for the extradition of Juan Peirano Basso, held on October 24 before Federal Judge Ted Bandstra. Peirano Basso, arrested in Miami in May, is accused of defrauding numerous depositors of $800 million in a case that has aroused great public interest.
«We are concerned and we will keep a close watch on developments in this case that could imply a setback for freedom of expression, which is at issue because it has to do with access to the courts: part of the controversy between the press and the judiciary that has been occurring in other countries in the Western Hemisphere,» declared Gonzalo Marroquín, chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
The banker’s attorneys, on grounds that their client’s defense was being hampered, complained to the judge that an Uruguayan television station had broadcast photos of the accused in court, probably taken with a mobile phone. Under court rules in South Florida, it is forbidden to photograph defendants during hearings, with violators liable for punishment of 30 days’ imprisonment and/or a fine.
Judge Bandstra accepted the defense complaint and on Monday called in Sarthou to testify in court about the photos. His attorneys requested a postponement so as to have time to appear in court in Miami. The television station, meanwhile, has not said who took the photos and claimed the right to keep the identity of their source confidential.
Marroquín, editor of the Guatemala City, Guatemala, newspaper Prensa Libre, said that «one of the objectives of the IAPA, through its Chapultepec Project, is to maintain an open dialogue between the press and the judiciary regarding issues that are acrimonious for both parties, such as access to the courts and the filming of trials.»
In recent forums staged by the IAPA, and in its Hemispheric Conference on Justice and Press Freedom held in Washington, DC, in 2002, topics of discussion included access by the press to the courts and the dissemination of information by the judiciary.
