Peru

Reporters Without Borders has issued seven policy recommendations to protect news professionals and their outlets, and calls on the new government to instate concrete guarantees that the press can freely and safely investigate those in power.

Mitzar Castillejos Tenazoa’s murder highlights the Peruvian authorities’ failure to protect journalists and a worrying surge in violence against the media in Peru, affecting local and investigative journalists in particular.

Police officers shot rubber pellets, tear gas, and threw rocks as they sought to disperse protests against President Dina Boluarte.

Ensuring the protection and sustainability of journalism in the Amazon must be one of the multilateral commitments made to protecting the environment, especially in the lead-up to COP30.

The IAPA warned of a persistent pattern of attacks, threats, restrictions, and stigmatization campaigns coming from political power, public figures, and institutions.

Reporters Without Borders (RSF) is alarmed by growing hostility toward independent media in Peru, where journalists are increasingly the target of judicial harassment, stigmatization, and physical –even lethal– attacks.

The office of Peru’s human rights ombudsman denounced the lack of security guarantees for journalists and also noted that the Celis’ killing occurred less than four months after TV journalist Gastón Medina was shot dead.

The undersigned organisations express our strongest condemnation of the enactment last April 14, 2025, without observation by the Executive Branch of Peru, of the law approved in Congress on March 12, which represents a serious threat to the defense of human rights. Likewise, the approval of this law does not comply with Peru’s obligation to guarantee the rights of assembly, association, expression, defense of human rights of the members of civil society organizations, access to justice, and the right to petition before an international body of the victims.

The journalist had previously faced a series of well-documented threats for his critical reporting. The Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) reported three incidents in 2022 alone.

Since 2000, at least 338 journalists have been killed in the region, highlighting the urgent need for protection mechanisms to counter systemic violence. In a new report, RSF analysed journalist protection programs in the region, reaffirming its commitment to addressing the escalating threats against journalists.

“It is appalling that the Peruvian judicial system is being used to prosecute IDL-Reporteros and Gustavo Gorriti for their work investigating issues of public interest” – CPJ.

Ugáz has been the target of multiple criminal lawsuits since she and Pedro Salinas co-authored the 2015 book “Half Monks, Half Soldiers,” which alleged a pattern of sexual, physical, and psychological abuse within a Peruvian Catholic lay organization.

Despite the danger, Calloquispe, a freelancer for ‘El Comercio’, ‘Latina Televisión’, and environmental news site ‘Inforegión’, presses ahead with his investigations and scoops.

In addition to being subjected to physical violence and arbitrary arrest, some journalists told RSF that the police said they had to be unionised.