OCTOBER 30, 2006
POSTED: November 16, 2006
Luis García Miró, Expreso
LEGAL ACTION
García Miró, editor of the Lima-based daily Expreso, was ordered by judge Mercedes Gómez Marchisio of Lima’s 35th Penal Court to “refrain from publishing any news or journalistic report” related to former Minister of Justice Diego García Sayán, who is suing the editor for criminal defamation, according to local news reports.
García Sayán filed suit on September 15, arguing that García Miró had defamed him in a series of 10 articles published between December 2005 and September 2006, which accused him of corruption during and after his term as Minister of Justice in 2000, said the local press freedom group Instituto Prensa y Sociedad. At that time, García Sayán requested the judge to order Expreso’s editor to refrain from publishing articles related to the suit as “a preventive measure.”
On October 30, Judge Gómez Marchisio ruled that there was enough evidence to begin a process against García Miró, and ordered him not to publish anything related to the former minister until the legal process had been concluded, reported the Peruvian press. On November 14, García Miró appealed the decision to Lima’s Superior Court.
Peruvian politicians and media harshly criticized the judge’s decision, calling it a violation of the Peruvian constitution and an attack against freedom of the press.