June 8, 1998

 

Your Excellency,

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to express its growing alarm about a series of threats directed against journalists reporting on the Army Intelligence Services (SIE), the National Intelligence Service (SIN), and National Intelligence Service advisor, Vladimiro Montesinos. As President of Peru, and Commander-in-Chief of the Peruvian armed forces, we urge you to authorize an independent investigation to determine who is responsible for these threats and to take legal action against any one found to have engaged in abuses.

Among the recent threats are the following:

Journalists who have reported on intelligence operations have been the subject of a series of attack articles in Lima's tabloid press accusing them of being communists, terrorists, and traitors. As an organization that defends press freedom around the world, we do not, as a matter of policy, comment on the content of articles. However, in this case there is evidence that the stories are part of an orchestrated government campaign. Often, articles published in the different tabloids use the same language and contain confidential and personal information about the journalists. On May 29, the daily La República reported that it had in its possession two faxes sent to El Tío, one of the tabloids, from a company owned by Augusto Bresani, a public relations consultant who has worked as an advisor to Army Commander General Nicolás Hermoza. One of the faxes contained an article that was reprinted verbatim in the next issue of El Tío; the other suggested possible headlines.

Angel Páez, one of the journalists who has been attacked in the tabloids, has also been receiving as many as three death threats a day for several months. Páez, who is chief of the Investigative Unit of La República and correspondent for the Argentinean daily Clarín, has reported frequently on the military, including the operation carried out by the SIE to monitor the phone calls of journalists and opposition politicians. The calls have been placed to his office and to his cell phone; sometimes military music is playing in the background.

A number of other prominent reporters, all of whom have covered abuses by the intelligence services, have received either telephone or written threats. Among those who have reported such threats to CPJ are César Hildebrandt of Canal 13; Luis Iberico, Gonzalo Quijandria, and Cecilia Valenzuela of Canal 9; and Fernando Rospigliosi and Gustavo Mohme of La República.

Journalists from the daily El Comercio who were reporting on a secret plan code-named "Tsunami 97" to investigate businessman Baruch Ivcher on tax charges, received threatening phone calls, in late April and early May, both before and after the story was published. Ivcher, who was born in Israel but was a naturalized citizen of Peru, was stripped of his citizenship last year after the television station he owned, Canal 2, aired a series of controversial reports on the intelligence services. The station made public Vladimiro Montesinos' tax returns showing that he earned far more than his government salary; it reported on alleged links between Montesinos and drug traffickers; and it aired a major feature on SIE officer Leonor La Rosa who alleged that she had been tortured by fellow military intelligence officers who accused her of leaking information about a secret plan to murder top journalists in Peru.

As an organization of journalists dedicated to the defense or our colleagues around the world, we are deeply troubled by this pattern of threats. Journalists in Peru suspect that the campaign against the press is being conducted by the members of the intelligence services, specifically Vladimiro Montesinos. We urge you to authorize an independent investigation to determine who is responsible for the threats. If allowed to go unchallenged, these incidents could call into grave question Peru's tolerance for a free and critical press.

Sincerely,

William A. Orme, Jr.

Executive Director