The Diplomat
The Association of Editors of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean, Editored, has published a note in which it condemns the attempt by the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office to have the Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti reveal the sources used in the information about the bribes paid. in that country by the construction company Odebrecht.
The note states verbatim: “The Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office opened a preliminary investigation against the director and founder of the independent investigative portal IDL-Reporteros, the prestigious and multi-award-winning Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti. Among the proceedings that the Prosecutor’s Office wants to carry out is the lifting of the secrecy of Gorriti’s communications and also of two prosecutors in charge of the Lava Jato corruption case in Peru.
According to the lawsuit that gave rise to the process, Gorriti had corrupted a special unit of the Prosecutor’s Office that since 2016 has been investigating bribes paid in Peru by the Brazilian construction company Odebrecht. IDL-Reporteros’ journalistic work on this corporation – which has accepted having paid bribes to politicians in several Latin American countries – began in 2011 and has led to the judicial prosecution of four former Peruvian presidents. The media has explained in depth how he developed his work on that case.
Among the procedures that the prosecutor handling the case has ordered are two of particular concern. The first asks to provide the telephone numbers that the journalist and the two investigated prosecutors have used between January 2016 and April 2021. The second, provides for “authorizing, in due course, the Lifting of the Secret of the Communications of those investigated Rafael Ernesto Vela Barba , José Domingo Pérez and Gustavo Andrés Gorriti Ellenbogen.”
EditoRed expresses its solidarity with Gorriti and the other IDL-Reporteros journalists, while condemning the aforementioned requests from the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office because it considers them an attempt to reveal the sources of information. The protection of sources is a fundamental precept for the very existence of journalism, which dedicates a good part of its efforts to revealing to society the dark dealings of those who hold power and, with their actions, harm citizens and states.
This Association of Publishers from the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean respectfully requests that the judicial proceedings against Gorriti be stopped. They are a negative precedent that dissuades investigative journalists from continuing with their professional and civic work, never free of personal risks.”
