Rosana Cueva, director of Peru's largest television channels, América TV and Canal N, says she has grown accustomed to various forms of intimidation for her work. While it bothers her, she accepts it as part of the job.
However, when the Lima Organized Crime Prosecutor's Office announced in January 2025 that she was officially under investigation for "trafficking of personal data” and “criminal organization," her perception changed. The severity of the crimes she's being investigated for could advance to the point where her home could be searched, her private communications accessed, and, of course, she could go to jail.
The case is just one example of what press freedom organizations identify as attacks and harassment by the State against the country’s press. These aggressions come in the form of legal cases, restrictive legislation and verbal attacks by politicians, including the president herself.
In Cueva’s case, she and two other journalists – Eduardo Quispe, former reporter for América TV, and Humberto ‘Beto’ Ortiz, freelance journalist, – are under investigation after Zamir Villaverde, a businessman with a criminal history and a close associate of former President Pedro Castillo, sued them in November 2024 for alleged criminal organization.
When the journalists' media outlets refused to take down articles investigating Villaverde’s political ties and background, he filed suit alleging that the journalists paid a witness in the Attorney General's investigation against former President Pedro Castillo. Villaverde accused the journalists of paying for scoops, something all three press professionals denied.
“The surprising thing was that a prosecutor's office listened to him and opened an investigation,” Cueva said.
Press advocates say journalists aren’t just finding themselves attacked in the courts.
Zuliana Lainez, president of the country's National Association of Journalists (ANP, for its initials in Spanish), told LJR that the executive, judicial and legislative powers of the country have journalists in their sights.
“We have said, literally and with documents, that journalism in Peru is currently under siege because it is attacked by all branches of the State,” Lainez said.
Rodrigo Salazar Zimmermann, director of the Peruvian Press Council, told LJR that the public prosecutor's office and the judiciary are the "main front of aggression" against the press. The public prosecutor's office opens investigations against journalists and authorizes raids that, in the CPP's view, should not have been approved. The judiciary, on the other hand, accepts "absolutely absurd” complaints and makes no progress in investigating crimes against journalists, including those committed more than 30 years ago, Salazar said.
As an example of this, he cited, is the lack of progress in the investigation into the murder of journalist Gastón Medina in January 2025.
Meanwhile, the current Congress passes bills every 60 days that affect the press.
One of them, for example, was approved by Congress on March 12 and signed into law by the president on April 14. Law No. 32301, known as the "anti-NGO" law, has been criticized by press freedom organizations and journalists in the country and around the world due to its harmful effects on the profession.
Under this law, the Peruvian Agency for International Cooperation (APCI) can censor and block journalistic investigations funded by international cooperation, journalists say. This also affects media outlets that receive this type of financial support.
Additionally, on March 13, Congress approved another law on its first vote that increases penalties for defamation and slander, which could lead to a journalist serving sentences of up to five years in prison. It is still on the Congress’ agenda for a second vote.
And then there are the constant verbal attacks from the executive branch, which consistently accuses media outlets and journalists of being "coup plotters," "mermeleros" (receiving money in exchange for publications), and even "image terrorists."
"How sensitive it is to use the word ‘terrorist’ in a country like ours," Lainez said.
On March 3, President Dina Boluarte accused the "bad press" and the Attorney General's Office of colluding to create a "soft coup d'état."
In addition to this aggressive rhetoric, Salazar said that during the anti-Boluarte protests between December 2022 and January 2023, more than 100 journalists were beaten, harassed and threatened by police for covering the protests. According to Salazar, there are no open investigations into these attacks.
"So we have an entire state against the press, and to use Dina Boluarte's words, I would say that the Peruvian state has launched a soft coup against the press in Peru," Salazar said.
LJR requested comment on these allegations from the press offices of the Presidency, the executive branch, the legislative branch, and the Attorney General's Office, but did not receive any replies.
The deterioration of press freedom in Peru has also been noted by various international organizations.
The latest Chapultepec Index from the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), which evaluates the state of press freedom on the continent, "confirmed a serious decline in freedoms of the press and expression in Peru," Carlos Lauría, IAPA executive director, told LJR. The country dropped from 12th to 16th place out of 22 countries and reached the "highly restricted" category.
Similarly, in the World Press Freedom Index conducted annually by Reporters Without Borders (RSF), Peru plummeted from 77th place in 2022 to 110th in 2023. And by 2024, the most recent year of the index, it had dropped even further, to125th place out of 180 countries.
In March, IAPA conducted a three-day visit to the country, where it was able to verify on the ground the information it received about the situation of the press in the country, Lauría said. The association was reassured by the response it received from the government and the openness shown to its concerns, such as when the president of the judiciary, Janet Tello Gilardi, signed the two IAPA declarations (Chapultepec and Salta II) as a demonstration of commitment to freedoms of the press and expression.
However, Lauría said the IAPA representatives found it "very disappointing" that the day after its departure, a new "gag law" criminalizing defamation was passed.
“As a positive development, we have seen that civil society and journalist advocacy organizations are on the front lines of defense,” Lauría said. “It's important to raise awareness of this problem because it clearly isn't just affecting one sector of the population, the journalistic profession, but rather the entire society.”
Lauría called on the international community to focus on Peru, especially in light of the elections the country will hold next year.
“It's important to give this visibility given that the worsening political and institutional situation [in Peru] has had a very, very harmful impact on freedom of expression,” Lauría said.
