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Peru
The Peruvian government lacks the ability to enforce adherence to its own laws in the countryside.
Peru is a multi-party democracy with constitutional recognition of press freedom. But threats, violence and the killing of journalists with impunity plague Peru due to the erosion of these two fundamental pillars of civil society. Judicial corruption and serious human rights abuses committed by police and security services combine with powerful economic interests (coca growers) to pose a serious challenge to press freedom and the safety of journalists in Peru.
These challenges to press freedom were recognized in a 2004 U.S. Department of State report on Human Rights Practices in Peru. On press freedom the report recognizes that "there were multiple reports of press harassment by provincial authorities or from private groups or organizations such as protesting coca growers (cocaleros). Harassment took the form of attacks on journalists, illegal arrests, or threats of judicial action. Two reporters, Alberto Rivera and Antonio de la Torre, were killed; local officials were suspects in both slayings."
Coca farmers powerful interest in countryside
Roberto Gálvez, of Inforegión news agency, and cameraman Nicolás Álvarez were threatened on March 7, 2007, by Diógenes Niño, a leader of coca farmers (cocaleros) in Huanuco. Niño also threatened freelance journalist Miguel Campos and the correspondent of the daily paper Correo, Sergio Madueño.
Julio Aguirre Domínguez, of Radio Concierto, was physically attacked on March 10, 2007, by cocaleros in the northwestern town of Tocache who had been protesting for two days against destruction of their crops and who disapproved of the journalist's reporting.
Journalist killed in full view of his family
Miguel Pérez Julca, 38, a reporter with Peruvian radio station Radio Exitos, was killed on March 17, 2007, in Jaén, in the northwestern province of Cajamarca. He was driving with his wife and two children to his home in the Las Palmas neighborhood when two men riding a motorcycle shot him in the head in full view of his family. Pérez Julca was investigating reported corruption in the local government and residents' fears for their safety.
These attacks on Peruvian journalists, has Reporters Without Borders (RSF), calling on the Peruvian government to monitor the soaring violence against the media. RSF said the country had accumulated one of the worst press freedom records in the Americas so far in 2007, with at least 50 attacks and threats documented.
By David Sharpe
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Related links:
Visit Freedom House to read more about press freedom in Peru.
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