The Panamanian newspaper La Estrella reported a cyberattack on its website on Wednesday, Dec. 12, according to the publication.
"We denounce it as a serious attack on press freedom but we are not intimidated in the slightest," said the president of Grupo Editorial El Siglo y La Estrella, Eduardo Quirós.
The attack occured after La Estrella published an exclusive video on its website of ex-dictator Manuel Noriega as he was transported from a prison in France to another in Panama in 2011. In the video, Noriega appears to be laughing and receiving special treatment from his guards.
The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the National Union of Panamanian Journalists condemned the attack on the newspaper in separate statements. “It not only disrupted the normal dissemination of the newspaper’s online version but also it was a hindrance for the distribution of the information and restricted the readers’ right to seek, receive and access information they are interested in, so these events must be investigated promptly,” said Claudio Paolillo, president of IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
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.
