A Guatemalan journalist accused a Congressman of trying to bribe him with cash, according to the Center for Informative Reports of Guatemala (Cerigua in Spanish).
The newspaper journalist from elPeriódico, Enrique García, said that Congressman Estuardo Galdámez left him an envelope with money inside, which the journalist immediately returned. Online, elPeriódico published the voice recording of the Congressman trying to convince the reporter to take the money on Wednesday, July 25.
Galdámez said on a radio interview that he forgot the money during the interview with the journalist and when García met with him to return it, the Congressman wanted to give the money to the reporter as a donation, expecting nothing in return, reported elPeriódico.
The president of the Congress Transparency Commission, Amílcar Pop, said he wanted to find out whether a video existed of the Congressman giving money to the journalist, since there are security cameras inside the Congressional building that film 24 hours a day, according to the newspaper Siglo 21.
The vice president of Guatemala, Roxana Baldetti, said the congressman will be taken to the Patriot Party Disciplinary Committee so he may explain what happened, reported Cerigua.
“ElPeriódico considers it absolutely offensive and outrageous for Congressman Galdámez to try to bribe a reporter from our newsroom, but we also believe that this outrage should be shared with the society as a whole," reported the newspaper in its Thursday, August 2, edition.
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.
