(AMARC/IFEX) – AMARC condemns a series of threats and smear campaigns against various radio stations belonging to the national coordinating body of radio stations (Coordinadora Nacional de Radios, CNR), AMARC’s partner in Peru. According to a 15 December 2006 CNR press release, in the last few weeks the people in charge of various community radio […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – AMARC condemns a series of threats and smear campaigns against various radio stations belonging to the national coordinating body of radio stations (Coordinadora Nacional de Radios, CNR), AMARC’s partner in Peru.
According to a 15 December 2006 CNR press release, in the last few weeks the people in charge of various community radio stations have received death threats or been the target of defamatory attacks by other media outlets. AMARC believes that these attacks and threats are part of a systematic campaign against radio stations, organisations and people who defend the rights of communities affected by certain companies and powerful economic interests, which seek to limit the former’s freedom of expression.
This is the case with Radio Oriente and La Voz del Cainarachi radio stations, located in Yurimaguas and Barranquita, respectively. Both stations are members of CNR and AMARC and promote the rights of peasants and the indigenous population in Loreto and San Martín.
On 10 December, messages threatening to kill La Voz de Cainarachi director, Father Mario Bartolini, and Sr. Lucero Guillen, who leads the local Roundtable for Dialogue on the Struggle Against Poverty (Mesa de Concertación de Lucha contra la Pobreza), were painted on the façade of the Barranquita church. CNR has also reported defamatory campaigns in commercial media outlets against Monsignor José Luis Astigarraga – the bishop of Yurimaguas – and Radio Oriente station director Geovanni Acate. Acate and Radio Oriente are in the same area as La Voz de Cainarachi. The stations work in a coordinated manner on the same issues, focusing on the situation of peasant farmers who may be displaced due to the actions of others.
There are strong indications that these death threats and the smear campaign are in response to the coverage which the radio station has provided on local inhabitants’ protests against the concession of over 20,000 hectares of land expropriated from peasant by the State, and then turned over to the Palmas de Cainarachi company, which belongs to the Grupo Romero, one of the country’s most powerful economic consortia. According to Peru’s national journalists’ association (Asociación Nacional de Periodistas del Perú, ANP), the threat occurred after Bartolini and Guillén, through the station, allowed the farmers’ demands to be granted property titles to the fields they have been cultivating to be heard.
The smear campaign has been extended to Radio Cutivalú in Piura, Radio Marañón in Jaén, Chami Radio in Otuzco, Radio Santa Mónica in Chota, Radio Coremarca in Bambamarca, Radio Santo Domingo in Chimbote and Radio Manantial in Huarmey, as well as other media outlets and development organisations such as the Centre for Research and Promotion of Peasant Farmers (Centro de Investigación y Promoción del Campesinado, CIPCA), that work in areas affected by the activities of mining companies that are socially and environmentally irresponsible. AMARC believes that these mining companies are connected to these threats. (For the full text in Spanish of AMARC’s press release on the situation, see: http://legislaciones.amarc.org/06-12-08-PeruCNRRechaza.htm )
AMARC stands beside and strongly supports these radio stations, because they are carrying out the task of informing the public in a pluralist and independent manner. AMARC also backs the CNR press release, which states that its member radio stations “make a significant contribution to local, regional and national development. They promote the exercising of human rights, intercultural dialogue, negotiation between diverse social actors, as well as initiatives for community supervision of public administrations. Our members are neither promoted by nor do they belong to organisations of the extreme left, nor to any other partisan political tendency, nor do they answer to interests subordinate to them.”
According to the CNR national board of directors, these attacks are directly related to other developments indicative of an authoritarian trend in the country, which are affecting freedom of expression, association and work, such as recent modifications of the laws governing international development cooperation in Peru, especially aimed at neutralising organizations defending human rights affected by certain mining companies (see IFEX alerts of 14 and 10 November and 31 October 2006).
AMARC calls on the international freedom of expression community to also support the campaigns initiated by the national journalists’ association and the Instituto Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS).
RECOMMENDED ACTION:
Send appeals to authorities:
– asking them to assign appropriate officials to investigate these incidents immediately
– asking them to determine individual responsibilities for the incidents
– asking them to impose the penalties stipulated in the law on those determined to be responsible
APPEALS TO:
Sra. Pilar Mazzetti Soler
Ministerio del Interior
[Minister of the Interior]
Lima, Perú
Fax: +511 2257234
E-mail: ministro@mininter.gob.pe
Dr. Antonio Ruiz Sánchez
Fiscal Superior Decano del Distrito Judicial de San Martín
[San Martín district chief prosecutor]
Jr. Pedro Canga 417, 2do. Piso
Moyabamba, Perú
Tel: +514 2563191
General Benigno Pinto Huanqui
Frente Policial San Martín
[San Martín police commander]
Amazonas, Perú
Tel: +514 2523518
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
