(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Giovanni Acate, director of Radio Oriente in the city of Yurimaguas, Loreto region, northeastern Perú, says he has been harassed by Alto Amazonas Subregional Administration officials after having reported on irregularities in the construction of the Santa Cruz district’s electrical grid. The harassment took place at the end of August 2004. According […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Giovanni Acate, director of Radio Oriente in the city of Yurimaguas, Loreto region, northeastern Perú, says he has been harassed by Alto Amazonas Subregional Administration officials after having reported on irregularities in the construction of the Santa Cruz district’s electrical grid. The harassment took place at the end of August 2004.
According to Acate, the officials have used Radio Doble A and Canal 6 de Telecomunicaciones television station, both of which are owned by businessman Nino Soria Arévalo, to distort his reports by linking them to economic interests that the journalist has. In addition, Acate said that on 23 August, the Alto Amazonas Subregional Administration’s director of public relations spoke for 20 minutes on a Radio Doble A news programme, saying the journalist was pressuring local authorities to accept advertising contracts and trying, by any means possible, to obtain a licence from the Transport and Communications Ministry to establish a television company in Yurimaguas. Acate denied the accusations, although he did admit to trying to establish a television company, but only through legal channels.
Acate began reporting on irregularities in the Santa Cruz electrical grid construction in April 2004, when work on the grid was initiated. Santa Cruz district borders Yurimaguas. The journalist found that the Sol Contratistas company, which is owned by Soria Arévalo and is in charge of the carrying out the project, had not received the permission it required from Electro-Oriente, the electrical supply company. According to Acate, the allegation was confirmed on 5 August, when Electro-Oriente sent a letter to Sol Contratistas demanding the immediate return of materials that the company had used.
