The Foreign Press Association in Peru (APEP) expressed on April 5 its concern about tax investigations what can they put the confidentiality of anonymous sources in danger of journalists who have uncovered high-profile cases of alleged corruption, such as the director of the IDL Reporteros portal, Gustavo Gorriti.
In a statement, APEP recalled that “the reservation of anonymous sources is a fundamental part of journalistic work” and, likewise, a right protected by the Peruvian Constitution.
The guarantee of journalistic professional secrecy is a basic indicator of the freedom of the press, allowing the fulfillment of its watchdog and whistleblowing role, he added.
In this sense, he stressed that “without being able to promise anonymity to journalistic sources who fear reprisals, important facts of public interest would simply not become known.”
“We demand that all authorities fulfill their obligation to respect the right to journalistic confidentiality,” stated the union of foreign correspondents in Peru.
At the end of last March, the supreme prosecutor Alcides Chinchay opened a preliminary investigation against prosecutors Rafael Vela and José Domingo Pérezas well as the journalist Gustavo Gorriti for the alleged crimes of passive bribery, active bribery and illegal sponsorship, following the testimony of the former advisor of the suspended Attorney General Patricia Benavides, Jaime Villanueva.
Prosecutor Chinchay seeks to determine whether Vela and Pérez provided confidential information to Gorriti about the case opened against Benavides for alleged criminal organization, in exchange for exerting alleged media pressure to remain on the prosecutor's special team for crimes of senior state officials.
According to Villanueva's testimony, cited by the media, the investigated prosecutors and Gorriti allegedly agreed to corner the former president Alan Garcia in the investigations opened against him for alleged bribes from Odebrecht for the construction of Line 1 of the Lima Metro.
García committed suicide in 2019 when a prosecutor from the special team went to his home, with the Police, to proceed with his preliminary arrest, after having detained other former officials of his second government (2006-2011) for this case.
The investigation opened against Gorriti, a renowned Peruvian investigative journalist, has also generated concern from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) about its “impact on investigative journalism in Peru.”
Likewise, the Peruvian Press Council noted that lifting the secrecy of Gorriti's communications “opens a dangerous door for the Prosecutor's Office to abuse this figure to persecute, intimidate and limit investigative journalism.”
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