Index on Censorship, a UK-based organization that promotes freedom of expression, has presented Peruvian community radio station La Voz de Bagua one of its 2010 Freedom of Expression Awards, the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas reported.
Index on Censorship said the award, which is sponsored by The Guardian newspaper, “recognizes journalism of dogged determination and bravery.”
Peru’s Ministry of Transportation and Communications revoked Radio La Voz de Bagua’s broadcast license on June 8, 2009, three days after anti-government protests erupted on a remote jungle highway in the Bagua province of Amazonas department.
Leading members of President Alan García’s APRA party accused the station of inciting violence during the unrest. The official revocation order, however, made no reference to any alleged support of or incitement to violence, and justified the action on the grounds that the station had failed to meet the legal requirements set forth in its initial broadcasting permit from March 2007.
The confrontation between some 5,000 protesters and Peruvian soldiers and police that left six natives, four Bagua residents and 11 police dead was the worst crisis since García took office in 2006.
The protesters were demanding, among other things, the repeal of several Executive decrees enacted in 2008 by President García to provide attractive investment conditions for the Free Trade Agreement signed with the United States.
