"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.
This statement was originally published on cpj.org on 12 November 2024.
Peruvian judicial authorities must stop harassing journalist Gustavo Gorriti and the investigative news website he founded, IDL-Reporteros, and respect the right of reporters to maintain confidential sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.
In an October 25 resolution, Peru Supreme Court Judge Juan Carlos Checkley ordered the Attorney General’s office to compel IDL-Reporteros to turn over audio recordings that were part of its 2018 investigation into judicial corruption and to interrogate Gorriti, its editor-in-chief.
“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,” said Cristina Zahar, CPJ’s Latin America program coordinator, in São Paulo. “CPJ insists that freedom of expression and the right to maintain confidential sources be respected.”
The resolution came in response to a request from César Hinostroza, a fugitive former Supreme Court judge who fled to Belgium. Hinostroza, whose recorded conversations with government officials formed part of IDL-Reporteros’ 2018 investigation, is under investigation for corruption and influence peddling.
Gorriti told CPJ that the aim of Checkley’s order is to get IDL-Reporteros to reveal the names of its sources from the 2018 investigation. “No matter what happens, we are not going to reveal our confidential sources,” he said via messaging app.
Adriana León, spokesperson for the Lima-based Institute for Press and Society, told CPJ that Peru’s constitution protects the rights of journalists to maintain the secrecy of confidential sources.
There was no response to CPJ’s calls to the Attorney General’s office.
A 1998 IPFA awardee, Gorriti is Peru’s most prominent investigative reporter. In 2009, he founded IDL-Reporteros, the journalism arm of the Legal Defense Institute, an independent organization dedicated to fighting corruption and improving justice in Peru.
Partly as a result of IDL-Reporteros’ scoops, dozens of Peruvian public officials, lawyers, judges, and business people are under investigation for criminal acts. But there has also been a fierce backlash against IDL-Reporteros and Gorriti, who has been targeted by right-wing protesters and government officials.
In July 2018, CPJ reported that police and prosecution officials went to IDL-Reporteros’ office to demand they hand over materials used in stories about government corruption, but left after they were unable to show a warrant.
In March 2024, a public prosecutor in Lima launched a bribery investigation of Gorriti for allegedly promoting the work of two public prosecutors in exchange for scoops about political corruption investigations. Gorriti has called that investigation “absurd.”
