Correspondent in Lima
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The year 2022 has had a bad start for the exercise of freedom of expression in Peru. To the raid for no reason at the house of journalist Pedro Eduardo Salinas, who has just finished a book on a Catholic organization, and to the condemnatory lawsuit against journalist Christopher Acosta and publisher Jerónimo Pimentel for the book ‘Plata como cancha’ is now added the PBO radio shutdown, that although it had not had a license since 2013, the moment chosen for the closure of this opposition radio station is more than questionable.
The PBO radio, which is transmitted through the signal whose owner is Ricardo Belmont Vallarino, was intervened and closed yesterday by the Ministry of Transport and Communications of Peru.
Sources close to the businessman explained to ABC that “lacking a license since 2013 was rectifiable, and since April 2021 he was in full litigation to resolve the problem, but Belmont found out the hard way that he was out of the game,” it is say, no official signal. PBO journalists, such as Phillip Butters, described the event as an “outrage of freedom of expression.”
The Council of the Peruvian Press (CPP) “asks the Prosecutor’s Office to give detailed and public explanations about the raid and the lockout of the premises where the Radio PBO transmitter is located. “This organization is and will always be an advocate for formality in the communications industry. It recognizes that by raiding and unlocking a radio station that does not have an operating license from the Ministry of Transport and Communications, a procedure that is in accordance with the Radio and Television Law is being followed,” indicates the CPP, while adding that “it is questionable the opportunity and the moment in which the Prosecutor’s Office has carried out this process. The Press Council concludes that “the radio in question did not have a license for several years… Therefore, the question remains as to why no action was taken when the license expired and it is now decided to close an opposition line radio station».
On January 8, 2022, prosecutor Reynaldo Abia ordered a group of twenty policemen armed to the teeth to raid the house of Pedro Eduardo Salinas -journalist and co-author of ‘Half monks, half soldiers’- under the pretext that he is part of the alleged criminal network Fortuna VIP (sic). Salinas is accused of being part of a criminal organization without presenting sustainable evidence. His cell phone was taken and has not been returned to him. They could not take the computer where the last book, still unpublished, that he has written about the Sodalitium is located, because it was chained to the wall.
On January 10, a court convicted the journalist and author of the book ‘Plata como cancha’, Christopher Acosta, and the editorial director Jerónimo Pimentel for defamation after a claim of 100 million soles (31 million euros) made by the former presidential candidate. Cesar Acuna.
“What happened at Pedro Salinas’ home escapes any proportionality test… we are concerned that this could have an effect of self-censorship on the next book or on the next politician,” said Pedro Vaca, the rapporteur for freedom of expression at the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights of the OAS.
www.abc.es
George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism