"Peruvian authorities should drop criminal defamation charges against journalist Carlos Yofré López and prosecutors should not contest López’s appeal of his conviction in a separate criminal defamation case, the Committee to Protect Journalists [CPJ] said today [Aug. 31]. Both cases allege criminal defamation due to the journalist’s investigative work.
In one case, López, a reporter for the independent Radio Antena 9 and Facebook-based news website Barranca Noticias in the Pacific coast province of Huaura, is being sued for criminal defamation by Juana Caballero, an appeals court judge in Huaura, according to his lawyer Eva Gomera who spoke to CPJ via messaging app.
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Caballero claimed that López damaged her reputation after he reported on Radio Antena 9 and Barranca Noticias that Caballero may have accepted a bribe to overturn the corruption conviction of a local politician and that, as a judge, her assets had increased by 600% within a year, according to the ANP. CPJ called Caballero for comment but no one picked up the phone."
