On 4 February 2000, IPYS reported that Radio 1160, a station with a nation-wide range, had not been allowed to broadcast since Wednesday 2 February. According to information published in the 4 February edition of “El Comercio” newspaper, the head of the Thirtieth Special Civil Court ordered that the stationâs transmitter be seized. The transmitter […]
On 4 February 2000, IPYS reported that Radio 1160, a station with a nation-wide range, had not been allowed to broadcast since Wednesday 2 February. According to information published in the 4 February edition of “El Comercio” newspaper, the head of the Thirtieth Special Civil Court ordered that the stationâs transmitter be seized. The transmitter is owned by Genaro Delgado Parker through his company, Marconi S.A., and is located in Morro Solar de Chorrillos, in Lima, the Peruvian capital.
At the same time, another court seized the station’s booths and offices, located in a Brazil Avenue office, to requisition accessories and television lighting equipment which were allegedly property of the Global Television Network (Red Global de Television, RGT).
Diego RodrÃguez, director of Central de Radio S.A., the company that operates Radio 1160, noted that according to the 3 February edition of “Liberacion” newspaper, the “real reason for the judicial intervention was to ‘silence a medium of free communication and prevent people from freely expressing their opinions via a radio station which is at the service of democracy.'” RodrÃguez affirmed that the station would broadcast anew, within the next 48 hours at the latest, stating: “We will do everything we can, technically and financially, to operate, if possible, with another transmitter. But we will not be silenced.”
On 4 February, Oscar Becerra, general news producer for Radio 1160, told “El Comercio” newspaper that the situation “has to do with a civil case related to debt owed by the Marconi S.A. company to a former RGT shareholder,” a debt that they surely recognise, “should have resulted in the seizure of accounts and equipment, not in us being silenced.” Becerra suggested that Julio Vera Abad, RGTâs judicial administrator, was responsible for the judicial action as he had apparently pledged to “prevent Genaro Delgaro Parker, majority shareholder, from regaining control of the radio station’s administration.”
Some months ago, the radio station’s owner, Delgado Parker, in his position as former president of the Peruvian Association of Radio and Television, publicly contradicted a statement by the current president of the association who maintained that there is press freedom in Peru (see IFEX alerts of 23 December and 10 November 1999).
