«Peruvian journalism under siege»: more than 150 attacks on journalists and media so far this year | LIME – El diario andino
«Since you don’t answer, I’m going to be clear with you … you are that you mallrate my work in Huaraz. One more and you die.» The message received by the journalist Gudelia Gálvez Tafur, director of the Middle Huaraznoticias.com, to her WhatsApp on Friday, July 4 was direct: if he continues to investigate the alleged corruption in public works, they will kill her or attempt against her parents. Since Wednesday of last week, he had been the target of incessant calls and threats to do his job, but when he arrived at the Depincri they did not accept their complaint for not being an «consummated fact.»
In those days, former Interior Minister Juan José Santiváñez criminally denounced journalists Mónica Delta, Juan Subauste, Carlos Hidalgo, to the cameraman Jorge Ramírez and the Latin television company for an alleged “adjustment” for the report entitled “Who does Santiváñez gather in Palacio”. A week earlier, on June 22, the journalist Roberto Cabezas Morales, director of the media above Peru News, was intervened by ten police officers in an alleged reprisal for his informative work. They intercepted him in Huaral and took him by force to Huacho to perform an ethyl dosage that came out negative.
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Despite having been censored by Congress, Santiváñez maintains a key role in the Executive and now seeks to take to court those who investigate their power links. Guilds alert that it is a new maneuver to criminalize journalistic exercise and a serious attack on press freedom.
These three cases occurred in recent days show the growing harassment of journalistic exercise in Peru. According to the National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP), only the first half of the year have registered at least 150 attacks on journalists and media, including the murders of journalists Gastón Medina, in Ica, and Raúl Celis, in Iquitos.
«We are outraged that, although in this country they have murdered two social communicators in this 2025, we cannot understand that the police do not wantsaid Zuliana Lainez, president of the ANP to Commerce.
After the public complaint of Gálvez Tafur, the Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office opened an investigation for the case.
For Lainez, this recent case shows the siege on the press work, which has as one of its main manifestations judicial harassment. The ANP has a record that indicates that between 30 and 35 journalists are carried out every year. «80% are acquitted, but they have to eat a four -year process,» he added.
Harassment from the high powers of the State
In this context, Lainez warns that the criminal complaint of a public official as Santivañez adds to several attempts, from the authorities, for criminalizing journalism. «Journalism in this country is under siege. Mr. Santivañez is a senior official of the Government Palace and confirms a tendency that journalists are attempted to involve in other types of crimes, which are no longer defamation, and that they have no support. Previous months Alejandro Soto, when he was president of the Congress, also denounced by adjustment to the director of the Fourth Power Research Unit. It seems that it has become a new pattern used by enemies of press freedom to try to harass journalists«he added.
With it coincides by the Executive Director of the Council of the Peruvian press (CPP), Rodrigo Salazar, who warns that attacks are usually more aggressive in the face of the passivity of the authorities. On June 21, the housing of the journalist Carlos Alarcónin Yurimaguas (Loreto), it was shot after receiving threats for a corruption investigation that points to councilors.
«Journalism is more risky with every week. He said to this newspaper
For Salazar, the fact that officials of the relevance of President Dina Boluarte or former Minister Santivañez add daily the «emboldeneone» press to others who seek to paralyze investigations.
To this are constant messages of high authorities that stigmatize the informative work. «This comes from the president of the Republic, who says her investigations are image terrorism. Also of officials of regional and local governments, of authorities they speak of blackmail but use a language that does not individualize responsibility and, on the contrary, they generalize seeking stigmatization, which is accompanied by judicial harassment campaigns, in networks and even with laptops, ”says Lainez.
On the murders of journalists Medina and Celis, which occurred in January and May of this year, respectively, the ANP president indicated that the most advanced process is the first because it is already in the preparatory stage and there is an alleged hitman with nine months in preventive detention. Gastón Medina, owner and director of Cadena Sur TV, was shot dead in front of his home in Ica. He had a critical position against the recent efforts in the Ica Regional Government.
Journalist Raúl Celis was shot dead in the city of Iquitos. Photo: ANP
«The process for the murder of Raúl Celis in Iquitos progresses more because initially the case had been assumed by a criminal prosecutor. Our demand as press organizations is that there is a directive to be attended immediately by a Human Rights Prosecutor’s Office, which are more prepared to attend in such crimes in which the professional track has to be privileged», Lainez added.
Raúl Celis López, 70, was driving a morning news on Radio Karibeña. He was shot dead in a street in the center of Iquitos when he was aboard a motorcycle taxi. Although some indicated that it could have been an assault, the criminals did not rob the victim’s belongings.
