A Peruvian court annulled the conviction of Rafael Léon Rodríguez, a Peruvian journalist who was sentenced on May 3 for aggravated defamation, La República reported. The original sentence carried a one-year suspended prison term and a payment of 6,000 nuevo soles (about US $1,800) in civil damages.
Rafo León fue absuelto: su columna no califica como ilícito penal https://t.co/rL2Z57Hcqa pic.twitter.com/qAQIg1VuEz
— Sociedad El Comercio (@sociedad_ECpe) September 8, 2016
‘Rafo’ León, as he is known, was sued for allegedly defaming the former editor of newspaper EL Comercio, Martha Meier Miró Quesada, in an opinion column published in the magazine Caretas in July 2014.
According to news blog LaMula.pe, the Sixth Criminal Court for Free Prisoners of Lima, which heard the appeal of León’s sentence, said the journalist did not have the intention of defaming Meier in his column. In the column, he defended the former mayor of Lima, Susan Villarán, from the arguments made against her by Meier.
The judges that overturned the sentence ruled that the column was not defamatory, but critical, according to newspaper Correo.
The judges argued that it had been “shown that the words and phrases in the article written by the incriminated, although they are shocking, perhaps exaggerated, (…) satirical and ironic, are not of such intensity that they quality as a criminal offense because (…) they fall within the scope of public interest,” La República reported.
El Comercio said that Meier, who sued León for having affected her honor, her finances and her emotional state with the publication of his column, could appeal this new court ruling.
Several Peruvian media outlets, as well as national and international organizations defending freedoms of the press and of expression, hailed León’s acquittal.
This is not the only sentence for defamation against a journalist that was overturned this year. Fernando Valencia, former director of Diario 16, was convicted of aggravated defamation against former President Alan García. However, his conviction was overturned in August.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
