Investigating journalists from El Periódico is “one more way to silence the press”: ICFJ

The order of a judge investigate Guatemalan journalists and columnists who work – or worked – in the newspaper El Periódico, at the request of the prosecution, “is one more way of trying to silence the independent press”, especially the communicators who have been critical of the government of Alejandro Giammattei, he assures Luis Manuel Botello, assistant vice president of global impact and strategy at the International Center for Journalists (ICFJ).

In an interview with the voice of americaBotello indicates that attacks against journalists in Guatemala have increased, initiated with the arrest of the president of the newspaperJosé Rubén Zamora, and that he continued with the arrest of the administrative director, in addition to the raid on the offices.

Botello emphasizes a tendency to close public spaces, the free and independent press and how it is sought “in this case, using the judicial system, to intimidate journalists so that they do not continue doing your job.”

“A book” from other countries

The ICFJ assistant vice president for global impact and strategy explained to the VOA that the strategy against the media in Guatemala is “practically the same book” that has been used by “other governments with an authoritarian tendency”, and made reference to Venezuela, Nicaragua, Cuba and, “to some extent”, to El Salvador .

Nations, where according to him, “journalists become targets of government sectors that do not want the press to be able to do its job rigorously, demanding accountability.”

Legal demands, sending auditors, putting together quick cases or obstruction of justice are the tools that, according to Botello, governments use to “send a message to all the press that they are not going to continue allowing journalists to continue revealing these cases of corruption”.

And his greatest concern is that this intimidation generates censorship and “a freezing effect” that prevents “rigorous work covering information, on all those of public interest and involving government officials for fear of being threatened”, because to this is added that “there is no legal certainty for those who exercise freedom of expression and of the press.”

Call to the international community

The ICFJ spokesman urged the international community to “condemn, with one voice, the persecution of journalists.”

“To condemn the governments, in this case that of Guatemala, for taking an attitude that increasingly begins to close public spaces for debate. This sends a bad message not only to its citizens but also to the international community that in Guatemala You can’t criticize the government,” he adds.

Botello also called for respect for freedom of the press and of expression, and emphasized that no journalist should be threatened “simply for the fact of doing their job with rigor and professionalism.”

In February, Judge Jimi Bremer ordered an investigation of nine Guatemalan journalists and columnists, as the prosecutor’s office indicated that their publications on the actions of justice operators could constitute crimes.

Prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso also argued that the outlet publishes about complaints, disciplinary proceedings, and dubious rulings by justice operators, including her, which she called a smear campaign, and that it is a job that she could not carry out alone. the already imprisoned Zamorabut it must have had the collaboration of other people, so it is necessary to investigate the source of the publications and the financing of the media.

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