In a statement, union leaders confirmed their position before Ministry of State (MP) authorities at a time when a court order is seeking to investigate journalists and columnists under the Obstruction of Justice Act.
The meeting, which took place the day before, responds to the threat of criminal prosecution against nine members of the newspaper elPeriódico as a result of the second trial against its founder and director José Rubén Zamora, a decision that leads to the rejection of various sectors of the national and international press and public Opinion.
During the meeting, chaired by the Attorney General and Speaker of Parliament Consuelo Porras, AGP directors explained that over the past year many of the complaints filed were about aggression, lack of access to sources of information, as well as criminalization.
With this in mind, it was agreed to set up a working group to follow up the cases for which the prosecutor’s office for crimes against journalists is responsible.
The AGP called a meeting with the Press Authority’s body next Monday to determine action to be taken in the face of what they see as a new act of criminalization unprecedented in recent years.
The Alliance for Reforms also firmly rejected the MP’s actions by prosecutor Cinthia Monterroso during the first testimony hearing on February 28 in the second case against Zamora for the alleged crime of obstruction of justice.
“The corrupt are using the MP to try to silence the independent press, which is one of the last bastions of democracy,” the organization argued in a statement.
The Central American Network of Journalists joined a similar complaint, which highlighted that elPeriódico was characterized by the publication of investigations and notes reflecting complaints or irregularities by judicial officials, including Prosecutor Monterroso.
La Red… stands in solidarity with the Guatemalan journalists’ union, which has faced systematic state harassment in recent years for publishing investigations into government corruption, they warned.
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