BRUXELLES, 31 March 2009: The repression of freedom of expression and trade union rights in Latin American takes a heavy toll on the continent’s journalists. Women journalists are targeted differently, based on their gender. How can the trade union movement and international solidarity come to their aid? Zuliana Lainez, general secretary of the National Association of Journalists of Peru, ANPP, provides some answers, according to International Trade Union Confederation, ITUC.
What are the main actions of the Peruvian journalists’ union?
– Aside from defending workers’ rights and providing our members with training, we devote a lot of energy to defending freedom of expression and association. Peruvian law recognizes the right to organize and bargain collectively as well as the right to strike, but Peru has been heavily influenced by the neoliberal model since the 1990s.
– This change of policy has virtually wiped out the labour movement, including the journalists’ unions, as the threat of dismissal is used against anyone trying to organize. There are some 30.000 journalists in Peru. Around 9.000 of them are affiliated to our union, but as individuals, as there are no longer any unions in the media industry.
What is the scale of the violence against journalists in Peru?
– It has to be said that journalists in Peru are not murdered on the same scale as in Colombia or Mexico. The last murder dates back to March 2007 and the victim was a radio journalist, Miguel Pérez Julca, who had broadcast incriminating information about people “with connections”.
– Peru is, however, the country with the region’s highest rate of non-fatal attacks against journalists. There were 212 physical assaults against journalists in 2008. The greatest enemy of democracy and journalists’ freedom of expression in Peru is intolerance, as the authorities (national, regional or local) almost invariably put pressure on journalists when they see something they don’t like in the media. This pressure can take the shape of violence, death threats, legal action, etc.
Who carries out the physical assaults?
– They are usually individuals who are paid to carry out attacks. Over the last two years, however, we have seen a distinctive development in the interior of the country: the perpetrators are direct representatives of the authorities. A radio journalist, for example, was in the studio, doing his programme, when a representative of the Mayor came to beat him, at work! They also face assaults during demonstrations, when the stance of a media outlet is taken to be the personal stance of the journalist. There are even cases of demonstrators assaulting journalists, as they fail to realise that they are workers too.
What can your union do in such cases?
– We have a department in charge of defending journalists’ human rights that is not only open to our members but to all journalists. It operates a hotline through which we can be contacted around the clock. We put journalists who have been attacked in contact with the lawyers from this department, who guide them on the procedures to follow. In very serious cases, such as murders, we organise mobilisation and awareness raising campaigns to put pressure on the authorities to ensure that those responsible are brought to justice.
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