(IPYS/IFEX) – On Friday 1 December 2000, in an act of solidarity in defence of honour and in support of press freedom and freedom of expression, journalists who were covering events in the Congress plenary left the parliamentary galleries, after a decision was taken not to debate five motions calling for disciplinary action against Member […]
(IPYS/IFEX) – On Friday 1 December 2000, in an act of solidarity in defence of honour and in support of press freedom and freedom of expression, journalists who were covering events in the Congress plenary left the parliamentary galleries, after a decision was taken not to debate five motions calling for disciplinary action against Member of Congress Luis Cáceres Velásquez in Parliament.
As previously noted, on 22 September, the member of congress had an altercation with Rosa Reyna, a journalist for “La República” daily. Cáceres physically and verbally assaulted the journalist while she was in Congress and made a number of insulting remarks against “La República”. The five motions against him were put forth as a result of the incident.
It was up to Francisco Tudela, interim speaker of the National Parliament, to cast the deciding vote on whether the joint request put forward by five members of congress would be included in the debate, as the voting resulted in a tie of 39 votes in favour and 39 against with 14 abstentions. The motion called for an analysis not only of the attack on Reyna but also the violation of freedom of expression resulting from Cáceres’ unrepeatable comments against “La República”.
Tudela defended his vote by arguing that the incident had occurred more than seventy days prior to the motions. This angered the press workers and in response, at 1:00 p.m. (local time) they withdrew to the press lounge in protest. The president of the Journalists’ Federation (Federacion de Periodistas), Segundo llanos Horna, affirmed his support for Reyna.