(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a 29 September 2005 WPFC letter to Justice Juan Luis Rodríguez Romero: Sept. 29, 2005 The Honorable Justice Juan Luis Rodríguez Romero President First Chamber of Criminal Law Superior Court of Justice of Arequipa Arequipa, Peru Your Honor: On behalf of the World Press Freedom Committee (http://www.wpfc.org), an organization comprising […]
(WPFC/IFEX) – The following is a 29 September 2005 WPFC letter to Justice Juan Luis Rodríguez Romero:
Sept. 29, 2005
The Honorable Justice Juan Luis Rodríguez Romero
President
First Chamber of Criminal Law
Superior Court of Justice of Arequipa
Arequipa, Peru
Your Honor:
On behalf of the World Press Freedom Committee (http://www.wpfc.org), an organization comprising 45 press freedom groups from throughout the world, I urge you and the rest of your honorable Court to declare null and void the decision sentencing publisher of “El Búho” magazine and journalist Mabel Cáceres Calderón to one year in prison and paying a fine.
Ms. Calderón is the victim of a harassment and smear campaign by those she writes about in her articles, specifically the President of Universidad de San Agustín (UNSA), Rolando Cornejo Cuervo, and his attorney, Miguel Sierra López, the plaintiff in the current case.
Ms. Cáceres’s odyssey started after she published a series of articles about corruption, cronyism and embezzlement at UNSA, which placed Mr. Cornejo in a compromised position. Her investigation, which has been called “accurate and documented” by press freedom groups, was widely covered by the national media and received an honorable mention by the journalism award presented by Peru’s Instituto Prensa y Sociedad and Transparency International. Ms. Cáceres’s work even encouraged university employees to blow the whistle on Mr. Cornejo’s performance as president.
But her journalistic work has brought Ms. Cáceres death threats, harassment, being stalked and even the coordinated buy-out of one of her magazine issues. Likewise, Mr. Cornejo has sued Ms. Cáceres four times for defamation, and in every instance up to now she was either found not guilty or the charges were dismissed.
What all these actions of harassment and intimidation have accomplished is keeping the UNSA administration’s allegedly corrupt practices out of the public light and Ms. Cáceres from fulfilling her duty to keep the public informed. This arbitrary harassment has violated many press freedom principles and international treaties, including the American Convention on Human Rights, of which Peru is signatory, and the Declaration of Principles of Freedom of Expression of the OAS’s Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression, which states the following:
“Intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media violate the fundamental rights of individuals and strongly restrict freedom of expression. It is the duty of the state to prevent and investigate such occurrences, to punish their perpetrators and to ensure that victims receive due compensation.”
It is clear Ms. Cáceres is the victim, not the aggressor, in this case, and that she deserves the State’s protection, as the international treaties your country has signed dictate.
I urge you and your fellow justices to honor your Court’s reputation by not only declaring Ms. Cáceres’s sentence null and void but also by guaranteeing her safety and assuring the necessary conditions are in place for her to fulfill her duty to keep the public informed.
Respectfully Yours,
E. Markham Bench
Executive Director
World Press Freedom Committee
