(IPYS/IFEX) – Since 7 February 2006, Neptalí Jaimes Zúñiga, acting director of the Áncash region prefecture, has been refusing to provide information or to make statements to journalists with no journalism degree or who do not belong to a journalists’ association. The official’s actions violate both Article 2 of Peru’s Constitution, which guarantees freedom of […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Since 7 February 2006, Neptalí Jaimes Zúñiga, acting director of the Áncash region prefecture, has been refusing to provide information or to make statements to journalists with no journalism degree or who do not belong to a journalists’ association. The official’s actions violate both Article 2 of Peru’s Constitution, which guarantees freedom of expression, and law 26937 (31 March 1998), which establishes that one can work as a journalist without belonging to a journalists’ association.
Jaimes, who is the sub-prefect of Recuay, province of Áncash, and is acting prefect until a new one is appointed, told IPYS that the only person to whom he did not provide information was “Prensa Regional” journalist Arnaldo Mejía Bohórquez, alleging that Mejía had not identified himself. However, several other journalists state they have been treated in a similar fashion by Jaimes because they are not members of a journalists’ association: Gudelia Gálvez Tafur of Red Global Noticias, Marcelo Sánchez Oliva of Miramar Noticias and Guillermo Ibarra of Radio Melodía.
