Press associations in Peru criticize the bill that penalizes the dissemination of tax information

MADRID, 26 Jun. (EUROPA PRESS) -

Several professional press organizations in Peru have expressed their rejection of the bill being prepared by the Government and which provides for sentences of up to four years in prison for disseminating tax information.

For the Press and Society Institute (IPYS), the measure "would affect all types of tax investigations", which is "clearly unconstitutional" and has stressed that the project "would rather correspond to an attempt to prevent reporting on the numerous defendants of the regime", according to the RPP radio station. However, he has indicated that he will wait for the final text of the project to pronounce himself more precisely.

For its part, the Federation of Journalists of Peru (FPP) has expressed its "categorical" rejection of the bill. "We reject and condemn this type of journalistic coercion and blackmail against those who report the truth. With this bill, it would be harming the work of investigative journalism, if it is approved in the Legislative Plenary," he indicated.

This bill "seeks to sanction up to four years of effective prison", "minimize investigative journalism and leave the truth, the basic principle of the press, classify it as a criminal offense and prosecute it in its highest expression."

"In addition, the acts of corruption of the current government could not come to light, with this legal premise, which would hinder the right to information," he pointed out.

Meanwhile, the National Association of Journalists of Peru (ANP) has warned that "it directly affects journalistic activity in the country." "At a time when the trend throughout the continent is to make the processes against public administration and corruption in which those who exercise or have exercised a public function are involved as transparent as possible, what is happening in the country constitutes a clear regression," has indicated.

"The confidentiality of sources has been essential to reveal in recent decades facts of public interest. Pretending to violate professional secrecy is not only unfeasible, it is unconstitutional. For this reason, we deplore that both the Executive and Legislative Branches, in their capacity as powers of the State , abandon their role as guarantors of rights and freedoms, distorting their own or delegated capacity to legislate", he stressed.

Meanwhile, from the Association of Journalists of Peru they have expressed their rejection of the initiative, which implies "a latent risk and threat against freedom of expression."

"The Executive's project, which can well be described as a 'gag law,' violates not only national legislation, (but) also collides with the philosophy and standards of Freedom of Expression and the Rule of Law in the hemisphere that endorsed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and which is binding for Peru, as well as the Declaration of Chapultepec when it establishes the principle that there are no free people or societies without freedom of expression and of the press, highlighting that the exercise of this is not a concession from the authorities, it is an inalienable right of the people", he indicated.

"For this reason, the Association of Journalists of Peru rejects this bill that only seeks to legalize secrecy and intimidation in media cases of corruption that the media, journalists and communicators spread for the good of the moral health of the country" , it is finished.

The head of the Cabinet of the Peruvian Government, Aníbal Torres, announced on Friday the presentation to Congress of the bill that creates the crime of disclosure of tax information on criminal cases. The norm was approved in the last session of the Council of Ministers.

"A bill has been approved that creates the crime of dissemination of confidential information in the criminal investigation. The criminal investigation in its preliminary stage is confidential. It ceases to be confidential when it goes to the oral trial. There it is public and there is no reservation ", he explained.