(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 9 July 1999 RSF press release: **Updates IFEX alerts of 14 July, 11 June, 7 June, 2 June, 28 May, 21 May, 17 May, 20 April and 8 April 1999 and 2 December 1998** Peruvian government rejects the authority of the Inter American Court on Human Rights: Reporters sans […]
(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 9 July 1999 RSF press release:
**Updates IFEX alerts of 14 July, 11 June, 7 June, 2 June, 28 May, 21 May,
17 May, 20 April and 8 April 1999 and 2 December 1998**
Peruvian government rejects the authority of the Inter American Court on
Human Rights: Reporters sans frontières fears greater impunity and
increasing pressure on journalists
Reporters sans Frontières is worried by the Peruvian government’s decision
to ignore the Inter American Court on Human Rights. Reporters sans
Frontières underlines that this decision comes at a time when this organ of
the Organization of American States is to pass a number of resolutions
critical of Alberto Fujimori’s government and comment on the revoking of
Baruch Ivcher’s citizenship. Ivcher is the majority shareholder of the
television station Frecuencia Latina. In addition, the government’s decision
will deprive a number of journalists currently on trial from having access
to an independent arena, considering that the independence of the national
justice system is doubtful. Reporters sans frontières fears that this
decision will lead to greater impunity and to an increase in pressure
against journalists who are critical of the government.
On 13 July 1997, Baruch Ivcher was stripped of his Peruvian citizenship by
decree. The prior evening, his television station had implicated the
National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, SIN) in a
wiretapping scandal. Furthermore, Peruvian law limits ownership of media to
Peruvian nationals, automatically causing Ivcher to lose his ownership of
the station. On 31 March 1999, after the arbitration between the respective
parties at the Interamerican Commission on Human Rights failed, the case was
transfered to the Inter American Court on Human Rights. The Commission had
underlined that the Peruvian government violated a number of articles of the
American Convention of Human Rights, notably Article 13, which defends
freedom of thought and expression. It was then up to the Court to pronounce
itself on the issue.
On 15 April 1999, seven journalists – from “La Republica” newpaper,
“Caretas” weekly, and the production teams of the television programmes “Sin
censura” and “Contrapunto” – who had implicated the SIN, launched a suit
against the legal representative of Aprodev for distributing slanderous
messages against the journalists via the organisation’s web site. The
journalists accuse the SIN of being behind this slander campaign and its
circulation on the Internet. The independence of the Peruvian justice system
was put in question in this matter, when two judges were replaced after they
ruled that the journalist’s complaints were receivable by the court. The
replacement judges in charge of the case cancelled the order to remove the
incriminating passages from the website.