Please consult the attached reports from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and Reporters sans Frontières (RSF) for a detailed inventory of the various attacks suffered by journalists in Peru from 1988 to 1994.

According to the Attacks on the Press 1994 report, "journalists in Peru suffered the highest number of attacks in the hemisphere for 1994" (CPJ, 81). The Attacks on the Press 1993 report states that "journalists who attempted to cover the guerrilla war in the country side were harassed and threatened by both the military and the guerrillas" (CPJ, 139). The same report also mentions that "fourteen journalists who worked for El Diario and Cambio, publications allegedly linked to Shining Path and Revolutionary Movement Tupac Amaru (MRTA), respectively, remain in jail" (ibid.).

The Attacks on the Press 1990 report states that

in Latin America's Andean countries, journalism remains a dangerous profession, with reporters facing violence openly perpetrated by governments, guerrillas and drug taffickers. For example, leftist guerrillas occupied and bombed media in Peru, and reporters are routinely restricted and threatened by security forces in the country vast emergency zones under military command (CPJ, 5).

The report also mentions the death of journalist Pedro Macedo Figueroa, who was killed by unknown assailants following death threats by Sendero Luminoso (ibid., 16).

All attached reports outline the poor record of the Fujimori government in respecting the right to freedom of information and maintaining the safeguards of a free press in Peru. A 1994 Reporters sans Frontières report quotes the interior minister, Juan Briones Davila, declaring, in January 1993, "I put journalists on a par with members of the Shining Path and the Tupac Amaru revolutionary movement: they are information terrorists" (249).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the DIRB within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of sources consulted by the DIRB for this Response to Information Request.

References

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 1994. Attacks on the Press 1994. New York: CPJ.

_____. 1993. Attacks on the Press 1993. New York: CPJ.

_____. March 1991. Attacks on the Press 1990. New York: CPJ.

Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF). 1994 Report: Freedom of the Press throughout the World. London: John Libbey.

Attachments

Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ). 1994. Attacks on the Press 1994. New York: CPJ, pp. 81-87.

_____. 1993. Attacks on the Press 1993. New York: CPJ, pp. 138-144.

_____. 1992. Attacks on the Press 1992. New York: CPJ, pp. 95-96, 119-122.

_____. March 1991. Attacks on the Press 1990. New York: CPJ, pp. 5, 15-16, 29-30, 94-95.

_____. March 1989. Attacks on the Press 1988. New York: CPJ, pp. 75-77.

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1994. 1995. U.S. Department of State. Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office.

Reporters Sans Frontières [Paris]. 1994 Report: Freedom of the Press throughout the World. London: John Libbey, pp. 249-256.

Additional Sources Consulted

Critique: Review of the Department of State's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices. Yearly. New York: Lawyers Committee for Human Rights.

Foreign Broadcast Information Service (FBIS) Reports. Daily.

Index on Censorship [London]. Monthly. Writers and Scholars International Ltd.

Keesing's Record of World Events. Yearly. Edited by Roger East. London: Longman.

Latinamerica Press [Lima]. Weekly.