According to IPYS, Public Prosecutor Delia Begazo Villanueva has mistakenly including Rodrigo Abd –a photographer for the American news agency Associated Press– in her investigation of Greenpeace in the Nazca Lines case.
IPYS and the Association for Foreign Press in Peru (APEP) are concerned that Public Prosecutor Delia Begazo Villanueva, from the Second Prosecution District of Nazca, is mistakenly including Rodrigo Abd –a photographer for the American news agency Associated Press– in her investigation of Greenpeace in the Nazca Lines case. The incident occurred in Lima, the capital of Peru.
The public prosecutor has wrongly included Abd as a member of Greenpeace. Abd does not belong to Greenpeace and at the time of the events under investigation, was on a journalistic mission for his agency. Abd did not participate in the Greenpeace stunt which has been linked to the deterioration of the Nazca lines.
The practice of journalism is a lawful and constitutionally protected activity. As long as Abd was only performing his role as a journalist, he cannot be prosecuted for any crime. Journalism is protected by the so-called doctrine of “neutral behavior”, which has been embraced by the Peruvian Supreme Court in several cases.
IPYS and APEP ask the Public Prosecutor for the immediate exclusion Rodrigo Abd from the ongoing investigation.
