Bolivia

Bolivia’s Communications Minister has attempted to smear journalist Raúl Peñaranda, who wrote a book about government efforts to gain control over independent media outlets.

In a welcome development in Bolivia, a judge has ruled that criminal charges of espionage, complicity and disclosure of state secrets against two journalists be dropped and the case be moved to the country’s Press Tribunal.

Alberto Suárez, the police chief of the central city of Cochabamba, threatened Escarley Pacheco, a reporter for ATB Cochabamba, after she asked him about his ex-wife’s claims that he had subjected her to physical violence.

Reporters Without Borders welcomes the decision to overturn the 30-month jail sentence that Rogelio Peláez, the editor of the monthly Larga Vista, received for allegedly defaming a lawyer. The ruling ends years of judicial harassment for Peláez, but other Bolivian journalists are currently the targets of legal proceedings.

A criminal charge was brought by the Bolivian government against two journalists from newspaper La Razón, accusing them of espionage for allegedly disclosing state secrets.

The Inter American Press Association condemns the suspension of official advertising, and the intimidation campaign against the Bolivian newspaper El Deber by the Santa Cruz de la Sierra municipal government.

Reporters Without Borders calls on the judicial authorities to drop all proceedings against La Razón editor Claudia Benavente and Ricardo Aguilar, one of her reporters, in connection with an article that allegedly revealed state secrets.

Reporters Without Borders has urged the Bolivian authorities to carry out a full investigation into the disappearance of the journalist Christian Osvaldo Mariscal Calvimontes, who works for Canal Plus TV Tarija and has been missing since 19 January.

The Bolivian justice system has yet to try anyone for the 2012 double murder of brother-and-sister journalists Verónica and Victor Hugo Peñasco in El Alto, a city adjoining La Paz, although 10 suspects were originally arrested.

During a visit to the IAPA offices on November 8, Marianela Montenegro, a journalist and owner of Canal 33 television in Cochabamba reported that she has been harassed and threatened and the offices of her channel have been broken into on two occasions.

In response to Página Siete‘s aggressive reporting on government corruption, officials for the last year have been loudly denouncing the newspaper as a mouthpiece for Chilean interests who oppose Bolivia’s territorial claims along the Pacific coast.

The International Press Institute is concerned over a reported lack of progress in the investigation into the October 2012 arson attack on Bolivian radio journalist Fernando Vidal. Vidal was targeted by a group of hooded attackers who doused him in gasoline before setting him and the station alight during a live radio broadcast.

Accusing the La Voz de las Mayorías radio station of biased reporting, a group of protesters stormed into its offices and threatened to kill journalist Franz Eddy Loza, who fled and found refuge with neighbours. The protesters then smashed all the station’s equipment.

A raid was conducted at the premises of TV station 33 SBT, in Cochabamba, Bolivia. The station is known to be critical of the ruling party.

The editor of El Diario newspaper Ghilka Sanabria, was brutally beaten on the night of 5 November 2012; she has ruled out the possibility of the attack being an attempted robbery.

The owner of Radio Popular 95.1 FM, Fernando Vidal, and the station’s operator, Karen Arce, suffered burns of various degrees after a fire bomb attack on the Bolivian station, during a programme touching on smuggling in the region.