Press freedom group condems attack on local paper

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists condemned on Wednesday an attack on the office of newspaper Voces, a daily published in Tarapoto in San Martin region, last weekend.

Voces’ office was attacked with homemade explosives early Saturday morning, which resulted in damages to the building but no injuries.

According to the Association of Peruvian Journalists (APN), the paper had run stories about an illegal water connection to the address of Segundo Peralta Gonzales, a local businessman and candidate for congress for the Solidaridad Nacional party. Peralta denied the accusations. Read more…

Peru judge hits local blogger with 3 year prison sentence, first of kind in Peru

Peruvian blogger Jose Alejandro Godoy has been sentenced to three years in prison, 120 days of social work and ordered to pay a fine of 350,000 soles ($125,580) for defamation, the first of its kind against a blogger in Peru.

Godoy’s defense said it would appeal the decision by Judge Flore de Maria La Rosa, adding that the sentence was “exaggerated and without foundation,” daily Peru.21 reported.

In 2009, former Congressman Jorge Mufarech filed charges against Godoy for a post published on his blog “Desde el Tercer Piso” (From the Third Floor) about threats made by the ex-lawmaker against Julio Arzibu Gonzales, an adviser to Peru’s Nationalist Party (PNP).

In the post, Godoy provides links to various documents, including a letter from Arzibu to Congressman Fredy Otarola of the PNP outlining the threats.

Mufarech had sent a letter to Godoy demanding the post be taken down.

The Lima-based Press and Society Institute (IPYS) called the ruling unconstitutional and without precedent.

“The lack of judicial support for the sentence… as well as the excessive sentence, shows a clear attempt, without precedent, against freedom of the press in the history of Peru. It is the first sentence that has been produced in this country against a blogger,” IPYS said.

“It is an unfair, illegal ruling,” said Godoy. “It doesn’t only go against the Constitution but against international human rights agreements,” the blogger added.

Gov’t backtracks, restores license for Radio La Voz

Peru’s Transportation and Communications Ministry has restored the broadcasting license for Radio La Voz de Bagua following meetings with national press freedom groups, newspaper La Republica reported.

The decision to restore the license was made following meetings with Press and Society Institute (IPYS), Peruvian Press Council, the National Association of Peruvian Journalists and national ombudsdman – the Defensoria del Pueblo.

“My first impressions are of infinite thanks to all of the groups and everyone who helped achieve this win,” the director of Radio La Voz, Carlos Flores, told Ideeleradio. Read more…

Peru Gov’t won’t back away from canceling Radio La Voz’s license following Bagua protest broadcasts

Peru’s Transportation and Communications Ministry (MTC) will not rescind a resolution that canceled Radio La Voz’s broadcast license last year, the director of the radio station, Carlos Flores, told CNR news service.

MTC 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 deadly confrontation between protesters and Peruvian soldiers and police was the worst crisis since García took office in 2006. Read more…

Peruvian Times complaint to Agencia Andina

UPDATE to original post: Agencia Andina has added links on its posts back to our original stories. Peruvian Times appreciates the corrective action.

Lima, March 31, 2010

Laura Vásquez
English Website Editor
Andina Agencia Peruana de Noticias

Dear Ms. Vásquez,

Once again Agencia Andina’s English Website has blatantly plagiarized a Peruvian Times article for use on its English language news page. Read more…

Peru government to review medical records cited in pardon of ex-TV mogul

Justice Minister Aurelio Pastor said Wednesday a full review will be made of the medical reports used to justify the pardon granted last December to former TV owner José Enrique Crousillat, who took millions of dollars in bribes in exchange for favorable coverage of the Fujimori regime in the 1990s.

“We are going to ask for a new assessment of the medical tests,” state-run news agency Andina quoted Pastor as saying. “We have asked for the support of the Ministry of Health to recommend experts that, based on the reports in the file, will provide additional information to the executive branch and the president.”

President Alan García granted a pardon to the former owner of America Television on Dec. 11 for “humanitarian reasons,” on the grounds that Crousillat, 77, suffers from a series of ailments, including heart disease, depression and diabetes, which could put his life at risk.

Crousillat and his son, José Francisco, fled to Argentina in 2001 when video tapes recorded in the National Intelligence Service, SIN, proved the wide corruption network that ex-President Fujimori and his spy chief Vladimiro Montesinos had woven to control the media and public opinion. Early in 2006, the Crousillats were extradited to face trial in Lima.

Crousillat was sentenced to eight years in prison and charged a fine of $52 million, convicted of “selling” America Television’s editorial line to the Fujimori government in the 1990s. Two videotapes, recorded in the SIN offices in 1999, show Crousillat and his son receiving bundles of dollar bills from Vladimiro Montesinos. In one recording, on Feb. 26 that year, Montesinos counted the $100,000 packets to make up $1 million, “for January and February.” Crousillat and his son received about $619,000 a month to broadcast the news as dictated by Montesinos.

About a month after he was pardoned by President García, however, IDL-Reporteros, a non-profit investigative reporting team, published a picture of Crousillat, who appeared to be in good health during a recent visit to a beach. Crousillat had also been seen in good condition at popular restaurants.

Furthermore, Crousillat filled a lawsuit last Monday against the current directors of America Television in an attempt to regain control of the station, Crousillat’s lawyer, Jorge Castro, told Radio Programas Peru. Castro said former president Alejandro Toledo is also included in the lawsuit. He accuses them of, among other things, collusion and fraud.

“One begins to feel that he has been deceived, because a person that is in the final stages of their health is not at the beach… or at the Costanera restaurant,” President García told daily El Comercio.

Critics of García, however,  question his sincerity and point to his relationship with Crousillat’s daughter, Marisol, who was named to a top position at the government-owned National Institute of Radio and Television of Peru, or IRTP, in July 2009. Marisol Crousillat was appointed to the position by then-president of the IRTP, Ricardo Ghibellini, a confidant of García who was named ambassador to Brazil by the president in February.

“For me it is a mistake to suggest that this is a product of a deceived president. Those who believe that do not know our president,” former anti-corruption prosecutor, Antonio Maldonado, told Ideele Radio. “I don’t think that our president is so naive as to be tricked. This is part of a much more complicated sketch.”

“We have to be clear. The pardon given to José Enrique Crousillat is the largest betrayal of the fight against corruption in recent times. The pardon should be revised, it should be part of a national and international campaign for its revision. It should be annulled.”

Economics Prof. John McMillan and Pablo Zoido, a Ph.D. student in Political Economics, from Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business, published a paper in 2004 demonstrating the priority that Montesinos placed on Peru’s media in his campaign to control the nation’s democracy. The study, titled “How to Subvert Democracy: Montesinos in Peru” detailed how television owners were paid bribes about 100 times larger than what judges or politicians received.  Control of the Fourth Estate was the key to successfully gutting the democratic system of checks and balances.

Peruvian historian Antonio Zapata leaves successful TV history series to return to academia

By Paul Goulder
After nine years directing a history series for national television, historian Antonio Zapata has decided it is time to go back to university to teach and do research full time.

Sucedió en el Perú has been broadcast on the national television channel, Canal 7, since 2001 and has dealt with a wide range of historical topics (are there any left to cover?). Read more…

Peru journalist critical of government jailed for defamation

The founding director of a weekly magazine in Bagua, in Peru’s Amazonas department, was sentenced to a year in prison on Wednesday in a defamation lawsuit dating back to 2005.

Journalist Alejandro Carrascal of Nor Oriente magazine said he was unaware of the lawsuit filed against him by the former director of Bagua’s Superior Institute of Technology, Víctor Feria, when he was arrested on Monday, daily La República reported. For his part, Feria told the Coordinadora Nacional del Radio, or CNR, that he was surprised by the sentence delivered by Judge Francisco Miranda, saying he had essentially abandoned the lawsuit more than a year ago. Read more…

Peru D.A. to open investigation into prison pardon granted to ex-TV owner

The district attorney in charge of corruption crimes is to open a preliminary investigation into the pardon granted earlier this month by President Garcia to former TV mogul José Enrique Crousillat.

The investigation is being made into possible irregularities in the request for the pardon. The former majority shareholder of America Television was sentenced last year to eight years in prison but has been held in a private clinic for the past 10 months on grounds of to ill health. Read more…

Best social networking site for Peru’s expat community gets FB-like facelift

By Rick Vecchio
~ Peruvian Times Editor ~
Peruvian Times’ sister site Expatperu.com has undergone a major redesign with a fabulous social networking application for Peru’s English-speaking international community, or anyone interested in getting an inside view of how things really work in South America’s third largest nation. Read more…

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