Document #1212892
IRB – Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada (Author)
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.