On Saturday, Feb. 23, two gunmen shot and killed a Peruvian photojournalist for the newspaper El Comercio, reported the website Perú 21. The attack sparked debate about the public's security, the risks journalists run and how the media covers violence.
The Peruvian Public Defender filed a constitutional complaint against one of the articles in Legislative Decree 1129 on Feb. 15, which it claims violates the constitutional right to "access public information," reported the newspaper La República. Article 12 of the decree declares that all information related to national security and defense is classified, added the newspaper.
Media organizations and journalists top the list of the most influential Twitter users in Peru, according to a report done by the analysis firm Quantico Trends and published Feb. 4. Among the Top 20 most influential Tweeters are 14 users who are considered media organizations or journalists.
A Peruvian journalist was shot from a truck by at least three unknown attackers while he was riding his motorcycle, said the news site RPP Noticias. The attack against Juan Carlos Yaya Salcedo took place in Lima on Tuesday Feb. 5, the site added.
Nixon Solórzano Bernales, host of a TV program dedicated to informing citizens of public safety issues in the Cajamarca region of northern Peru, was attacked and stabbed as he left the television station on Jan. 14, according to the Press and Society Institute (or IPYS in Spanish).
Northern Peru was the most dangerous part in the country for journalists in 2012, according to a report from the Press and Society Institute (or IPYS in Spanish) on attacks against the press.
Journalists in Peru suffered 136 attacks and hostilities during 2012, according to a report from the Office of the Human Rights of Journalists at the Peruvian National Association of Journalists, reported the website Perú 21.
The Institute for Press and Society, IPYS, described a recent change in the legislative decree that regulates the National Defense System as a "serious attack" on the right to access information, freedom of expression and transparency.
A Peruvian journalist working in the area of human rights received two phone calls with death threats and an envelope with four bullets on Oct. 4, according to the Press and Society Institute, or IPYS. The relatives of Rosario Huayanca Zapata, who works for the Human Rights Commission of Ica (in the south-central region of the country), received the phone calls, while the envelope was found at her work.
The case of Peruvian journalist Rudy Palma, who served two months in jail for hacking into the e-mail of government officials, has started a national debate in the South American country over how to regulate information technology without threatening other liberties.
On Aug. 28, a new anti-terrorism bill was presented in the Peruvian Congress that could restrict freedom of expression and the press in the South American country, according to the AFP.
The Peruvian prosecutor's office raided a bookstore on Aug. 24 in Lima and confiscated copies of a magazine accused of advocating for the armed Peruvian group Shining Path, according to the news portal Terra.