(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Manuel Jesús Silva Ruiz received a three year suspended sentence (the maximum penalty for such cases according to the criminal code), and was ordered to pay 20,000 soles (approximately US$6,055) in civil damages to the wronged party. Silva Ruiz is the director of the “Variedades” talk show, broadcast on Radio Súper AM-FM […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – Journalist Manuel Jesús Silva Ruiz received a three year
suspended sentence (the maximum penalty for such cases according to the
criminal code), and was ordered to pay 20,000 soles (approximately US$6,055)
in civil damages to the wronged party. Silva Ruiz is the director of the
“Variedades” talk show, broadcast on Radio Súper AM-FM in the city of
Pucallpa, Coronel Portillo province, in the department of Ucayali.
Silva Ruiz was sentenced by the Coronel Portillo criminal court, presided by
Mario Benjamín Zurita Manyari. On 8 October 1998, a complaint was filed
against Silva Ruiz by the former provincial mayor and then municipal
candidate, Manuel Vásquez Valera, who accused the journalist of having
slandered him. The court’s decision did not take into account the evidence
that the journalist presented in his defense.
During the most recent electoral campaign, the majority of the media in the
city reported on Vásquez Valera’s candidacy, focusing on his past and his
alleged links with revolutionary forces. For example, on 31 August 1998, the
bi-weekly “Del Pueblo” reported on information from the 1986 edition of the
“Ahora” newspaper, which stated that subversive ranks were trained by the
State Regional College “El Arenal” (CEMBA), and gave details concerning the
assassinations committed by this college’s students. Vásquez Valera was a
professor and the college’s director for many years. Other journalists and
media also reported on this information and on other details concerning
Vásquez Valera’s political trajectory. During the campaign,Vásquez Valera
changed his image from that of being affiliated with the extreme left to
that of an independent candidate, founding the Independent Movement of the
People and for the People (Movimiento Independiente del Pueblo y para el
Pueblo, MIPP), whose symbol is a red map of the Ucayali region (in reality,
the Ucayali map is green because the region is covered by forests).
Journalist Silva Ruiz reported on these facts, using the printed media as
sources for his information, as did other journalists. For example, on the
30 September 1998 edition of the Magazín Ovacion programme shown on Channel
6, Luis Fachín Panduro, the programme’s director told his viewers that they
should not vote for Vásquez Valera because of his past and his alleged links
to terrorist activities.
Nevertheless, of all the journalists who reported on the former mayor’s
case, only Silva Ruiz was singled out and denounced by Vásquez Valera. In a
statement submitted to IPYS, the journalist attributes this to the fact that
his programme is the most widely heard and the most credible, and therefore
its potential influence on the voters could have been damaging to Vásquez
Valera’s aspirations. It appears that the former mayor was trying to send a
message to all of his critics by having filed the complaint against Silva
Ruiz, which was finally decided upon by the court on 8 July 1999. As the
journalist told IPYS in an interview, “this abusive ruling is only an effort
to silence the critical press and to grant Manuel Vásquez Valera impunity,
so that any evidence of his links with subversiveness can be hidden.”
It should also be noted that before and after the electoral campaign, Silva
Ruiz had been subject to various forms of harassment: death threats over the
telephone, being physically accosted, and in late June 1998, an attempted
kidnapping of his live-in lover, Liliana Paredes Panduro.
Various media, journalistic offices and the Pucallpa Lawyers’ College, via
its dean, Manuel
Arévalo Ríos, have reacted to this attempt against the freedom of the press
and of expression, demonstrating their disapproval of judge Zurita Manyari’s
ruling, which they say as a vengeful act that aims to silence the city’s
independent press.
On 9 July, Silva Ruiz presented an appeal to the Ucayali Supreme Court, in
the hope that justice will be served.
Recommended Action
Send appeals to authorities:
court
undertake a just and impartial investigation
Appeals To
Alberto Fujimori Fujimori
President of the Republic
Fax: +51 1 427 6722 / 426 6535Jorge Santistevan de Noriega
Ombudsman
Fax: +51 1 426 6657Víctor Raúl Castillo Castillo
President of the Peruvian Supreme Court
Fax: +51 1 428 0803José del Carmen Hermoza Astete
President of the Ucayali Supreme Court
Fax: +51 64 57 5634Solio Ramírez Garay
President of the Compound Chamber of the Ucayali Supreme Court
Fax: +51 64 57 2584Mario Benjamín Zurita Manyari
Coronel Portillo Criminal Court Judge
Fax: +51 64 57 3502Send copies of your appeals to:
Journalist Manuel Jesús Silva Ruiz
Fax: +51 64 57 3378
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
