Peruvian Authorities Threaten to Seize Documents on Corruption Reporting
Peruvian authorities should cease their attempts to seize documents from Ojo Público, and should respect the right of the press to have confidential sources, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.
On April 5, Peruvian public prosecutor Yovana Mori García
sent 13 petitions to Ojo Público, an independent investigative news website,
demanding the outlet turn over documents relating to money laundering
investigations into real estate, mining, timber, and agro-industrial companies
as well as a former presidential candidate, according to news reports, copies
of some of those petitions reviewed by CPJ, and Ojo Público editor Óscar
Castilla, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.
The outlet had exposed that alleged money laundering in its
2016-17 reporting based on the Panama Papers, leaked documents from a
Panamanian law firm, which prompted authorities’ investigations into those
companies and the candidate.
“It is troubling that Peruvian authorities would try to use
an ongoing investigation to pressure Ojo Público into turning over confidential
documents that it simply does not have,” said CPJ Central and South America
Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Prosecutors are
demonstrating a fundamental misunderstanding of investigative journalism
practices, and should stop threatening legal action against an outlet that has
done nothing wrong.”
Ojo Público was among the more than 100 news organizations
around the world that contributed to the Pulitzer Prize-winning 2016 Panama
Papers investigation, which was overseen by the Washington-based International
Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ).
Mori’s petitions ordered Ojo Público to turn over the
relevant documents by April 23, and warned that she would seek a court order to
access them if the outlet did not comply, a measure that could include the
seizure of its computers and laptops.
Castilla said that Ojo Público responded to Mori in an April
23 letter stating that that it did not possess those documents, because they
were part of a database controlled and administered by ICIJ, and that her
demand for the materials was therefore “infeasible.”
“They are asking for something that does not belong to us,”
Castilla said. He told CPJ yesterday that the attorney general’s office had not
responded to Ojo Público‘s April 23 letter.
He added that Ojo Público and the other news organizations
that contributed to the Panama Papers investigation signed confidentiality
agreements not to reveal their sources.
CPJ emailed the Peruvian attorney general’s office, and sent
texts via messaging app seeking comment, but did not receive any replies.
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