Government and civilian gangs harass alternative and foreign press | Far-right groups visit journalists’ homes and threaten them

Page/12 in Peru

From Lima

Hand in hand with the government and the parliamentary right wing, the dominant media is trying to impose a narrative that criminalizes the protests, denigrates the anti-government protesters as violent and terrorists and washes their face of the repression that leaves 48 people shot dead. and the army, and more than a thousand were wounded. Regarding the dead and injured, the mainstream media justifies the repression, praises it and asks for more. Terrorism is blamed without evidence, judicial harassment is encouraged and those who deviate from that unique discourse are demonized. The drama, pain and demands of the victims for justice are rendered invisible. Official lies — including the most ludicrous ones, such as President Tina Polwart’s claim that protesters shot each other — are repeated truthfully.

A media project

In this bleak media panorama, alternative media and foreign media condemn the traditional local media – except for La República and the weekly Hildebrandt – and remain silent: shooting-to-kill repression, arbitrary arrests. Abuses against community leaders and opponents, judicial harassment. And they give space to the voice of the victims. In return, the far right has colluded with the government to harass and threaten them.

Investigative journalism portal IDL Reporteros published an open report, with concrete evidence, that in Andean Ayacucho, the army killed ten residents on December 15, when security forces opened fire on protesters who did not attack the army., and against those who did not participate in the protest. It denied the official version that the deaths occurred in response to violent attacks by residents.

The far right goes home

Violent far-right group La Resistencia—popularly renamed La Pestilencia—linked to Fujimorismo and the fascist Renovación Popular (RP) party of Lima’s mayor, Rafael López Aliaga, visited the home of journalist Gustavo Coriti, director of IDL Correspondence. Harassing and threatening him. For an hour they placed megaphones in front of his house and shouted abuse and death threats. “Gority isn’t Peruvian, he’s Jewish” and “Corrie, your days are numbered”was part of a boisterous chorus of verbal attacks.

Coriti, a benchmark of investigative journalism, has revealed the scope of Odebrecht’s corruption in Peru, exposing the judicial mafia linked to Fujimorismo, but it is not the first time. Make it at home. Prosecutors prosecuting Keiko Fujimori have also persecuted the opposition, often with impunity. and to election officials who refused to accept false accusations of electoral fraud by the right to steal Pedro Castillo’s victory.

From Coriti’s home, the far-right moved towards the home of journalist Rosa María Palacios and repeated the violent animosity. Palacios is a right-wing journalist, a defender of neoliberalism, but her condemnation of human rights abuses by the Bolvard government and her criticism of Fujimorismo have earned her the hatred of the far-right, which calls her a “communist”. threat.

Speaking to Página/12, journalist Gustavo Gorriti said this This neo-fascist gang “is linked to the far-right’s more primitive and extremist ideologies and corrupt groups. His verbal aggression is increasing. Experience teaches that there is a moment when all levels of verbal aggression rise and physical violence passes. I think we are not far from it. They have already made some physical attacks. Mayor López Aliaga is, if not participating, at least complicit in this gang. Executives are overpowered and weakened by Congress. In the face of the most intense protests against Boluarte, these shock groups have come to present themselves as protectors and almost auxiliaries of the armed forces and police. Prior to that, a benevolent or tolerant position is very likely where some officials may very quickly become complicit with the neofascists.

Foreign press at the crossroads

Far-right media outlets attack foreign press correspondents for not following the official narrative script of mainstream local media. Far-right columnist Aldo Mariátegui, who writes with a scathing and defamatory streak in the Perú 21 newspaper, published emails from several foreign media reporters arguing that they should be persecuted. I urge them to write a complaint against the coverage of the human rights abuses the government and its partners cover up. Among the reporters this far-right character calls for harassment, journalists writing for The New York Times, Washington Post, The Guardian and ABC of Spain have received threats.

Another far-right spokesperson, the host of a show on the fake news factory Vilox TV channel, accused journalist Mitra Taj, a contributor to The New York Times, of promoting violence on her show. “Keep her on file,” he threatened, showing his photo on the screen.

Speaking to the newspaper, Mitra Taj said: “It’s rare that they name you on a TV show with your photo like they did at Villax. They attack us because we focus on human rights issues, collects testimonies from the deaths that have occurred and relatives of the victims, which is not seen much in the mainstream local media. There is a lot of resistance to focusing on the deaths, turning the page, and making the investigations futile.

At protest rallies, police attacked journalists from foreign and alternative media. During the demonstration in Puno, Photographer Altair Mejia from the EFE news agency was injured when a police officer who recognized him fired pellets into his leg. ABC’s reporter from Spain, Paola Ugaz, was punched against a wall by a police officer after identifying herself during a demonstration in Lima. Freelance photographer Walter Hubiu and journalists from online outlet Wayka were attacked by police while covering the protests in the capital.

In a conversation with Página/12, Juliana Lines, president of the National Association of Journalists, announced: “When there were cases in Lima where journalists from major media outlets were attacked by protesters, ​​​​​​​President Bolvard came out to show solidarity with them. It is important for the government to guarantee journalistic activity. But foreign, alternative or He did not utter a single word about the brutal attacks by the police against independent journalists, but rather about the immaculate police. There was no condemnation by the authorities for these attacks, revealing that they were not isolated incidents”. Journalists’ associations, human rights organizations, the US, UK and Canadian embassies expressed their concern and condemnation of threats and acts of violence against journalists.