(IPYS/IFEX) – On 27 July 2006, Arica’s supervisory judge (juez de garantía), Francisco Vargas Vera, forbade Mega TV channel cameraman, Julio Urquhart, to tape the public hearing he was presiding over, in spite of there being other people taping the proceedings who were not journalists. The cameraman recorded the moment in which the judge ordered […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On 27 July 2006, Arica’s supervisory judge (juez de garantía), Francisco Vargas Vera, forbade Mega TV channel cameraman, Julio Urquhart, to tape the public hearing he was presiding over, in spite of there being other people taping the proceedings who were not journalists. The cameraman recorded the moment in which the judge ordered him, as a journalist, to stop taping and warned that as long as he was a judge, the journalist would be forbidden to record any of his hearings. Urquhart told IPYS that he was the only television cameraman in the court at the time and that he was recording images of the judge for a report. The event took place in Arica, northern Chile.
According to information obtained by IPYS, the judge has been behaving this way with journalists since he arrived in Arica nearly a year ago. Urquhart stated that the judge has never allowed the press to tape him or take his picture.
On 9 August, Urquhart filed an appeal with Arica’s Appeals Court (Corte de Apelaciones de Arica), and communicated this to the Attorney General’s Office, asking to be allowed to tape court proceedings. The court has not yet ruled.
Criminal hearings are public. However, judges have the authority to prevent them from being recorded, but only in circumstances established by the law.
