CPP: “In Peru there is no freedom of expression regarding unpunished violence against journalists and protection of the State”

Press freedom has reached its lowest level in the last four years in America, warned this Friday the 10th. Inter-American Press Society (IAPA) on the second day of the 79th General Assembly that began on Thursday and will last until Sunday the 12th.

LOOK: “We disinfect wounds with vinegar”: this is how medical staff work in Gaza hospitals

The warning came with the presentation of the latest results of the so-called Chapultepec Index, a barometer prepared by the IAPA and the Andrés Bello Catholic University that measures institutional actions regarding freedom of expression and the press in 22 countries in the region.

This year the global average was 47.84 points out of 100 possible. It is the first time since the index began to be published in 2020 that said average has fallen below 50 points.

This is because, according to the IAPA, 18 of the 22 countries analyzed showed a decline during the last year of evaluation. Some of the nations in which the deterioration of conditions has been most marked were Honduras, El Salvador, Bolivia and Guatemala.

While the other side of the coin is represented by the Dominican Republic, a country that started to lead the index, slightly exceeding 80 points.

In the case of Peru, this year it was ranked 12th, one lower than last year and quite far from the sixth position it occupied in 2020.

“The situation is worrying from a national point of view and also from a regional one. For the first time we have four countries in the ‘high restriction’ group, previously the maximum had been two. And below we have the usual countries: Nicaragua, Cuba and Venezuela”, he laments in conversation with Trade Rodrigo Salazar Zimmermann, executive director of the Peruvian Press Council (CPP), who is in Mexico participating in the assembly.

– What is the general feeling during the assembly?

I think Mr. Carlos Jornet, president of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information of the IAPA, summarized it very well. He said the following: “America is suffering a true authoritarian tragedy. Therefore, the press is one of its first victims.” That’s the general feeling. In all the panels where we have been, in which the situation in Venezuela, Haiti, Bolivia, El Salvador, Peru or the United States has been discussed, we see that something terrible is happening in Latin America and it is reflected in the press. Within that figure, our country has its space of sadness.

– In April 2022 you told me that “Peru had always been considered an example of freedom of expression, but now we are in the last quarter of the region.” Today we have fallen one more place in the Chapultepec Index…

That’s right, we were a country with high freedom of expression until 2020 and 2021, since then we have been falling. Much of the responsibility lies with Pedro Castillo and his government, since it was last year when we fell four places. But the collegial excuse that Dina Boluarte and Alberto Otárola use to say that all the responsibility was Castillo’s is not true. This year’s fall is a response to his government.

Today we are within the group of countries that restrict freedom of expression at an aggregate level. But if we talk about State protection of journalists and impunity against journalists, we are in the regime of countries without freedom of expression. In other words, the Chapultepec index reflects that in Peru there is no freedom of expression in terms of unpunished violence against journalists and the protection of the State.

– It is alarming that this not only includes the Presidency and Congress but also organizations such as the Prosecutor’s Office, the Ombudsman’s Office or the Constitutional Court (TC). Could you explain to us the threat posed by these entities ceasing to be guarantors of our rights?

I just presented the case of Peru at the IAPA and closed the panel by saying that journalists in our country are helpless. We have a citizenry that does not love us, that does not trust the press and that has been partly won by the journalists themselves. On the other hand we have the classic aggressors, which are the Executive and the Legislative. But now they are joined by the Public Ministry, the Ombudsman’s Office, the TC, the Police and the military. That is, the entire State apparatus goes against the press.

Consequently, we see that the police try to force journalists in Lima and regions to reveal their secret sources. The Army, through the Intelligence Division, regulates journalists. The Prosecutor’s Office also tries to force us to reveal sources. The non-declaration of some public sectors to the press, such as the Ombudsman’s Office, which has renewed its internal regulations so that its officials can only declare with authorization from the Communications area.

I don’t want to think what happens if one day Congress approves a law against freedom of expression and the Peruvian Press Council takes it to the TC, it would surely rule against freedom of expression.

– As you mention, the errors of the press have brought the enmity of the citizens. But what consequences would not have an independent press with full rights have for the country in general?

There is no democracy without a free press. We can go back to the 18th or 19th century and see how in the wars of independence themselves the importance of freedom of expression and the press was already discussed so that there could be a republic. For 250 years it has been applied to freedom of the press as a fundamental piece for republics and democracies. It is not something that is said by the Press Council but by the founding fathers of the United States, for example. You cannot understand the government of the people and the law for all without the press. But of course, we have reached a moment in post-history in which citizens want to get rid of any interlude and I am not only referring to the press but also to politics. People today would love to vote by their cell phone, without having to go through Congress.

On the other hand, we have the fact that a certain sector of the press has had regrettable behavior for a long time, with greater preponderance during the 2021 elections, considering a candidate, no matter how poor his proposal, with qualifiers that were not own of him. Pedro Castillo was not a communist, he did not commit electoral fraud, he could not even appoint ministers. Citizens remember that a lot, especially in the southern Andean part of the country.

The media must do important work to regain the trust of Peruvians, especially in the southern Andean region, and we journalists must do it. Because a very big risk we have is that if one day the State wants to go against us with expropriations or frequency cancellations, no one is going to defend us.

– Remember our role as servants of citizens, right?

That’s how it is. The journalist is like a teacher, a firefighter or a nurse. We provide a public service and we have to remember it. What I think is important to highlight is that despite not having any type of defense from the State, journalists and journalistic organizations such as the Peruvian Press Council, the National Association of Journalists, the IPYS and the College of Journalists , we are truly united in a common front against aggression. We have to maintain that because we have nothing else left. And there is something that worries me a lot.

– What is it about?

We understand that Congress is a collection of interests of people involved in organized crime, money laundering or wage theft. But eventually, we believe, the international factions of violence will arrive, from Venezuela, Colombia or Ecuador. And they will have their own elements in Congress, which will become a new threat for journalists. The biggest risk we will have will be that those who investigate the Aragua Train, the Red Command or Los Gallegos, will suffer from an attempted attack. A money launderer may not kill a journalist, but a gang dedicated to hitmen can.

– Have you been able to talk with President Boluarte about the situation of freedom of expression?

If I’m not mistaken, we have had two meetings with her where she mentioned freedom of the press and expression. But now we see that the State channel has an editorial line of public relations about the current government, that the president tells the press to apologize for the case of her brother Nicanor, that 60 cases of police attacks on journalists during the protests they remain unpunished.

We clearly see a continuity of what Pedro Castillo’s government was. Since 2018 or 2019 we have been saying in every report we make to the IAPA that it is the worst year for freedom of expression in Peru since the return to democracy. And this year is no exception.

President Boluarte even mentioned to us her intention to sign the Chapultepec Declaration, the most important declaration in the world regarding freedom of expression and which is now 30 years old. We considered it at one point but then we preferred that it not happen, because we did not consider the timing appropriate for the president to sign while the police were beating the journalists. We do not find a spirit of the government or the State and we do not want to be useful fools.