EDITORED REJECTS JUDICIAL ATTEMPT TO MAKE PERUVIAN JOURNALIST GUSTAVO GORRITI REVEAL HIS SOURCES
The Peruvian Public Prosecutor’s Office has opened a preliminary investigation against the director and founder of the independent investigative portal IDL-Reporteros, the prestigious and multi-awarded Peruvian journalist Gustavo Gorriti. Among the measures that the Prosecutor’s Office wants to take is the lifting of the secrecy of Gorriti’s communications and those of two prosecutors in charge of the Lava Jato corruption case in Peru.
According to the lawsuit that gave rise to the process, Gorriti would have corrupted a special unit of the Prosecutor’s Office that since 2016 has been investigating the 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 prosecution of four former Peruvian presidents. The media has explained in depth how it developed its work on this case.
Among the proceedings that the prosecutor in charge of the case has ordered, there are two of particular concern. The first asks to provide the telephone numbers that the journalist and the two prosecutors under investigation have used between January 2016 and April 2021. The second, provides “to authorize in due time the lifting of the secrecy of the communications of the investigated Rafael Ernesto Vela Barba, José Domingo Pérez and Gustavo Andrés Gorriti Ellenbogen”.
EditoRed is in solidarity with Gorriti and the other journalists of IDL-Reporteros, while condemning the aforementioned requests of the Peruvian Prosecutor’s Office because it considers them an attempt to reveal information sources. The protection of sources is a fundamental precept for the very existence of journalism, which dedicates a large part of its efforts to revealing to society the shady dealings of those who hold power and, through their actions, harm citizens and states.
This Association of Editors of the European Union, Latin America and the Caribbean respectfully requests that the legal proceedings against Gorriti be halted. They are a negative precedent that discourages investigative journalists from continuing their professional and civic work, which is never without personal risk.
Gorriti himself, in a show of professional responsibility, sure of the suitability of the work that he and his colleagues have developed, has even shown himself open to give the telephone number that the Prosecutor’s Office requests. As he has said, it is a number known by hundreds of people and, he has affirmed, it is not directly related to the protection or security of his information sources. But, he assures, the alleged lifting of the secrecy of communications is a direct attack against the right to confidentiality of sources.
EditoRed supports the position of Gorriti and IDL-Reporteros of not handing over “any information about contacts, calls or any other aspect related to the practice of professional secrecy and source confidentiality of the journalistic profession”.
The organization Reporters Without Borders (RSF) has reported that conditions for the practice of journalism in Peru have deteriorated considerably. As it has published, “Peru is the Latin American country that has registered the greatest drop in the RSF World Press Freedom Index, in which it occupies 110th place out of the 180 countries analyzed, which means a drop of 33 positions compared to the previous year”.
Gustavo Gorriti’s work has been internationally recognized. Among others, he has won the Neuvo Periodismo Award in the Tribute category, the Maria Moors Cabot Award, the CPJ International Press Freedom Award and the King of Spain Award. In 2005 he was appointed president of the Instituto de Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS) and is a member of the International Consortium for Investigative Journalism.
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