The National Association of Journalists of Bolivia (ANPB) and the Association of Journalists of La Paz (APLP) issued a statement rejecting what they believed to be harassment by the Ministry of Public Affairs against the director of Radio Yungas, Eliana., Ayaviri, and the director of Radio FM Bolivia, Galo Hubner, and journalists of these media.
The associations recalled that public prosecutor Odalis Leonor Peñaranda had instructed Ayaviri and Hübner with requests to provide interview lists and copies of the interviews between their third work in the country.
The ANPB and APLP regretted that Prosecutor Peñaranda ignored that journalistic work is protected by the Political Constitution of the State (CPE), the American Convention on Human Rights, the Printing Act, and the Journalists’ Union Self-Regulatory Rules, which coincide to indicate that printing or Dissemination secret is inviolable.
You also mentioned that the CPE guarantees citizens’ right to communication and information, and further stipulates that “every social communicator has the right to keep their sources of information, notes, and personal and professional files”.
Likewise, Article 8 of the Printing Act states that “printing secrecy is inviolable”, and number 5 of the National Code of Journalistic Ethics stipulates the obligation to self-regulate “to protect the identity of confidential information sources”. if at all, in a journalistic work.
The journalistic associations advised Prosecutor Peñaranda that protecting the identity of sources of information is a journalist’s right that is exercised when the information thus obtained guarantees the right to be informed of their headlines about who the people are and the public debate in the constitutional state.
Consequently, it came to the conclusion that Prosecutor Peñaranda was failing her duties by, without due deliberation, demanding that Ayaviri, Hubner and their media provide “lists of interviewees” and details of their work with sources in a clear position of intimidation and sources Intimidation, which is also prohibited in the Inter-American System for the Protection of Human Rights.
The ANPB and the APLP demanded that the State Ministry’s pressure and harassment against Ayaviri and Huebner cease. They announced that they would forward a copy of this statement to the office of the Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights for a briefing on the case.
