03 Apr 12 | Index Index, minipost
A Peruvian appeals court has overturned a criminal defamation conviction against a journalist who reported on local corruption. The court found that the decision against radio journalist Teobaldo Meléndez Fachín contained “substantial errors” in the earlier conviction. The journalist was given a three year suspended sentence and a fine of around US $11,000, after reporting that a local mayor had misused a government loan of over US $2m. Fachín reported that local mayor Juan Daniel Mesía Camus used the loan for projects which benefited his political allies.
05 Dec 11 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
The newsroom of a Peruvian newspaper was attacked by a mob in the early hours of Thursday morning (1 December). The offices of El Sol de los Andes in Huancayo were attacked following a series of reports in the paper linking criminal gangs to police officers.
The mob, who caused significant damage to doors and furniture, as well as burning a banner, are believed to be relatives of the police officers named in the reports. Gino Márquez, assistant editor of the newspaper said he believed the reports were also to blame for the initial lack of intervention from the prosecutors office.
19 Oct 11 | Americas, Index Index, minipost
The security guards of a Peruvian congressman have been involved in attack on two journalists. Carlos Chávez Galdós and Leucario Madera Guardaluna, from TV stations Compañía de TV Cuzqueña and Canal 47 de Cuzco, were attacked outside a nightclub in Cuzco, southern Peru, after they suprised Congressman Rubén Coa Aguilar while he was drunk. According to the journalists, the Congressman’s bodyguards and nightclub security personnel attacked them and took their video cameras, after Coa Aguilar asked his security to hit the reporters, take their equipment and delete their videos.
28 Sep 11 | Index Index, minipost
Two Peruvian journalists accused of defamation were last week sentenced to two years in prison, although on suspended sentences which involve house arrest and paying a civil fine of $11,000 USD. Fritz Du Bois, editor of the newspaper Perú 21, and Gessler Ojeda, Perú 21 correspondent in the city of Arequipa, were reportedly taken to court for publishing stories about supposed links between the family of legislator Ana María Solórzano and prostitution businesses in the southern city.
