Leading Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora is due to appear back in court on 5 February in an obstruction of justice case – the latest of three politically motivated cases against him. Zamora has been detained for more than 550 days in connection with a money-laundering case, despite the fact that this conviction was overturned in October. Reporters Without Borders (RSF) representatives will be present in the courtroom to monitor the hearing, as part of an advocacy mission to the country.

The legal battle continues for José Rubén Zamora, one of Guatemala’s biggest names in journalism, and founder of the newspaper elPeriódico. He is due to appear back in court on 5 February in an obstruction of justice case, in which he and his former lawyers are accused of conspiring to interfere with investigations into the prior money-laundering case against him. Zamora’s lawyers were convicted on these charges in January and April 2023. The hearing involving Zamora has already been postponed twice, while his expected retrial for money laundering has also been delayed.

This hearing marks Zamora’s first court appearance during the new administration of President Bernardo Arévalo, who took office on 14 January. Arévalo recently declared that his government “will not use tools to pursue legal action against the press,” while emphasising that “freedom of expression is a priority.” RSF’s Latin America Bureau Director Artur Romeu will be in Guatemala City to observe the hearing, and to meet with officials from the new government, lawyers, and journalists. RSF has also formally requested to visit Zamora in prison.

“The imprisonment of José Rubén Zamora – which is emblematic of the criminalisation of journalism enacted by the former government of Alejandro Giammattei – is becoming an unavoidable imperative for the new government of Bernardo Arévalo, who took office with a commitment to guarantee press freedom in the country. It is deplorable that one of the biggest names in Guatemalan journalism has been imprisoned for more than 550 days while he awaits retrial on spurious charges. Zamora must be immediately released and the Arévalo administration must ensure that all further proceedings against him are conducted in accordance with due process and the right to a fair trial.”

Artur Romeu, Director of RSF’s Latin America Office

At 67 years old, Zamora has been detained since 29 July 2022 on the basis of a preventive prison order relating to the money-laundering case against him. He was sentenced to six years in prison in June 2023. However, this conviction was overturned by the appellate court in October 2023 due to procedural irregularities raised by the prosecution. This case was also scheduled for retrial on February, but has since been postponed while the Supreme Court of Justice’s Criminal Chamber is considering a motion to disqualify three judges. The same Chamber is also considering the prosecution’s extraordinary appeal for substitutive measures, which is delaying a decision on Zamora’s request to be released to house arrest – meaning he currently remains detained as he awaits retrial in the money-laundering case. In addition to these two cases, the journalist is also facing a third case on allegations of forging signatures on immigration control documents.

President Arévalo’s expected review of the government’s position in Zamora’s upcoming retrial, as well as other ongoing cases against the press, will prove to be a crucial step towards reframing these cases and reversing the dangerous trends enacted by the previous administration.

Just two weeks into his new administration, Arévalo emphasised that Zamora’s case is “emblematic” of the political persecution journalists face in the country. Arévalo mentioned that while his government does not have the authority to release Zamora, he hoped that in the retrial, Zamora would be released to house arrest as legal proceedings continue. Arévalo’s comments followed a visit to Zamora in prison by Minister of Governance, Francisco Jimenez, the day after taking office.

Guatemala is ranked 127th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index.

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Following his inauguration as Guatemala’s president on 14 January, Bernardo Arévalo faces a range of press freedom challenges as a key test of his new government. With a reputation as a reformer, it remains to be seen how Arévalo will act to stop the criminalisation of journalism in Guatemala, including addressing the high-profile case of detained elPeriódico publisher Jose Rubén Zamora, who faces a retrial in February.

After more than four months of domestic tension and threats to undermine the results of the democratic election, Arévalo was finally sworn in as president of Guatemala on Sunday, 14 January. Amid a climate of instability, which continues in the face of lawsuits filed against his party by defeated political groups in collusion with the judiciary, Arévalo will face many challenges to rebuild a climate conducive to press freedom. Among the key tests of his new government will be how to end the persecution and criminalisation of journalists and media critical of the upper echelons of power.

“While newly elected president Bernardo Arévalo does not have direct powers over the Public Prosecutor’s Office or the justice system, he knows that his arrival in power means a lot for rebuilding a strong press freedom climate. It is imperative that the police apparatus and executive bodies cease the persecution of journalists and the Guatemalan authorities, without delay, release elPeriódico publisher Jose Rubén Zamora, who is scheduled to be retried on 5 February.”

Artur Romeu, RSF’s Latin America Bureau Director

Breaking the climate of fear for journalists

The result of a process of co-optation of the state by different political, military and economic groups – in some cases linked to criminal organisations – democratic institutions, and the rule of law have been dismantled in recent years in Guatemala. This has resulted, as the mission carried out by RSF and 10 partner organisations in Guatemala in 2023 showed, in an institutional arrangement that serves impunity and corruption.

Dozens of journalists who covered cases of corruption, attacks on the environment and the rights of indigenous peoples, and even those who reported on lawsuits against judges and other media professionals have been criminalised and prosecuted, as in the case of the founder and then editor of elPeriódico, Jose Rubén Zamora, unjustly accused of money laundering, and still detained. He was arrested on 29 July 2022, five days after elPeriódico published information about cases of corruption involving people close to President Alejandro Giammattei. Subjected to judicial harassment, in June 2023 he was sentenced to six years in prison on trumped-up charges.

Under Guatemalan Attorney General María Consuelo Porras Argueta, who will remain in office until 2026, judges, lawyers, prosecutors and journalists have lost their freedom or been forced to leave the country to avoid arrest. Hundreds of criminal investigations have been opened into allegations of “obstruction of justice” by these journalists.

Many of these journalists lack the financial resources to pay lawyers and have been forced into exile for safety, including Juan Luis Font, who was covering for different media outlets corruption allegations against a former communications minister, who accused him of blackmail and criminal association. The journalists from the digital media outlet Vox Populi Sonny Figueroa and Marvin del Cid left the country at the end of 2023 after being constantly attacked on social media and threatened with prosecution, after publishing a report on the illicit enrichment of one of former president Alejandro Giammattei’s friends.

Arévalo’s expected review of the government’s position in Zamora’s upcoming retrial on 5 February, as well as other ongoing cases against the press, will prove to be a crucial step towards reframing these cases and reversing the dangerous trends enacted by the previous administration. Guatemala is ranked 127th out of 180 countries in RSF’s 2023 World Press Freedom Index.

Sign RSF’s petition for the immediate release of Jose Rubén Zamora!

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) hails a European Parliament resolution’s call for the immediate and unconditional release of José Rubén Zamora, the editor of the newspaper elPeriódico, and all other persons detained arbitrarily in Guatemala. Another example of the growing campaign for Zamora’s release, the resolution also calls on the Guatemalan prosecutor’s office not to obstruct the work of journalists.

Adopted by the European Parliament on 14 December by a big majority, the resolution’s primary purpose is to condemn the coup attempt in Guatemala and, in particular, the repeated attempts by the prosecutor’s office to annul the results of the legislative and presidential elections and thereby prevent President-elect Bernardo Arévalo from taking office.

The resolution also demands the immediate release of journalists, prosecutors and judges who have been detained arbitrarily in recent years, in particular, Zamora, and reminds the authorities that they must refrain from any attempt to obstruct the work of Guatemala’s journalists and human rights defenders.

“We welcome the resolution adopted by the European Parliament at this strategic moment in the transfer of power in Guatemala. We are one month away from Bernardo Arévalo’s installation as president, and institutional security must be guaranteed so that Guatemala can turn a sad page in its history in terms of the right to information and press freedom. Zamora’s release and an end to the persecution and criminalisation of journalists in Guatemala are essential for the country’s return to the path to democracy.”

Artur Romeu, Director of RSF’s Latin America bureau

On 10 December, four days before the European Parliament’s resolution, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) also approved a resolution deploring the manipulation of the judicial system and serious threats to the rule of law in Guatemala. The resolution drew the attention of members of the Organisation of American States to the serious decline in guarantees for freedom of expression due to the misuse of criminal law to intimidate and silence critics, including journalists.

RSF steps up #FreeZamora campaign

Zamora, who has been subjected to judicial harassment because of his newspaper’s investigative reporting on corruption, was awarded the RSF Press Freedom Prize in the Independence category last month. At the RSF awards, his son, Jose Carlos Zamora, thanked the entire elPeriódico team for their tireless efforts in defence of journalism in Guatemala.

Together with other organisations that defend journalism, RSF has launched several initiatives as part of the campaign for the release of Zamora, who is due to be retried on 5 February. Until then, RSF will continue to tirelessly call for his release and for a fair trial.

While taking part in a meeting with Arévalo’s transition team last month, RSF voiced its concern about the growing risks for journalists during the ongoing attempts to derail a democratic transition. The participants also made recommendations for improving the conditions for journalism and press freedom in Guatemala.

RSF secretary-general Christophe Deloire wrote to President-elect Arévalo on 15 December stressing the urgency of the need to release Zamora.

The #FreeZamora campaign has been collecting signatures all over the world to a petition for Zamora’s release. You can sign it here.

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A Guatemalan appeals court has overturned the six-year prison sentence imposed in June on trumped-up charges of money laundering against journalist Jose Rubén Zamora, founder of the newspaper elPeriodico. The court ordered that a retrial be held, keeping Zamora in detention. It is more urgent than ever that Zamora, who has already been detained for more than a year, is released without further delay.

On 13 October, the Second Chamber of the Court of Appeals of Guatemala annulled the sentence imposed in June on José Rubén Zamora, journalist and founder of the newspaper elPeriodico. Detained since 29 July 2022, Zamora was sentenced on 14 June 2023 to six years in prison on trumped-up money-laundering charges based on nothing more than an absence of documentary justification for the origin of a transfer intended to keep elPeriódico afloat.

The court ordered that the case be sent back to court and a date be set for a retrial. Zamora, who also faces charges of using false documents, must remain in detention in the meantime.

“RSF welcomes the court’s decision to overturn an unjust conviction that followed a trial marred by irregularities, and in a case intended to persecute one of the country’s greatest emblems of press freedom. The decision raises hopes for a fair trial and subsequent full acquittal. It is vital that Zamora, who has already been detained for more than a year, is released and can await the retrial in freedom.”

Artur Romeu, RSF Latin America Bureau Director

The decision was based on an appeal filed by the National Attorney General’s Office on the grounds that there were problems of form in the case against Zamora.

During a joint mission to the country last May, RSF representatives were able to visit Zamora in detention, where he reported he had been subject to mistreatment. RSF also observed other examples of judicial harassment targeting journalists who investigate corruption or simply cover the trials of those close to power. The criminalisation of journalism in Guatemala has increased significantly in recent years.

RSF continues to campaign for the release of José Rubén Zamora as a global priority, and will deliver an international petition calling for Zamora’s release and a stop to the criminalisation of journalism in Guatemala to President-elect Bernardo Arévalo following his inauguration in January.

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Read the report that includes the findings from our mission to Guatemala:

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Meanwhile, the government continues its efforts to undermine the rule of law and public institutions, with its recent blatant attempts to disrupt a democratic electoral process raising international alarm. The deterioration of press freedom in Guatemala was thoroughly documented last May by a joint fact-finding mission that included the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) and nine other organizations, and exposed the alarming situation for journalists and the press around the country. 

We, the undersigned ten organizations, urge Guatemala’s Eighth Criminal Sentencing Court to stop and reverse this steady decline in democracy by providing due justice in Zamora’s case so that he may be released without further delay. This act of justice would go a long way toward reestablishing public trust in the rule of law and democracy in Guatemala as the country prepares for its elections on August 20.

On July 29, 2022, Guatemalan police raided the home of Zamora, the founder and publisher of investigative daily newspaper elPeriódico and the publication’s newsroom. In May 2023, elPeriódico ceased online publication and then fully closed down operations after 26 years, leaving a gaping hole in Guatemala’s investigative media ahead of the country’s general election. Held in solitary confinement during pretrial detention, Zamora was forced to engage as many as nine lawyers as he and his family attempted to debunk the charges and achieve justice. On June 14, Zamora was convicted of money laundering, acquitted on blackmail and influence peddling charges, and was sentenced to a six-year prison term and a fine. International watchdogs and rights organizations have widely criticized the charges against him as retaliatory.

As part of their observation of Zamora’s trial, the American Bar Association and the Clooney Foundation for Justice’s Trialwatch initiative have documented a detailed timeline of irregularities in the legal process, noting that “Zamora has been represented by 9 different lawyers throughout proceedings, and many did not seem to have access to the casefile.” 

Zamora founded his newspaper in 1996 to serve as a vehicle for public accountability. It evolved into a working school for investigative journalists who honed their skills exposing corruption in Guatemala, a country with a record of media repression and gross human rights violations.

The campaign against elPeriódico and its staff is part of a broader backlash targeting prosecutors, journalists, and others involved with the International Commission Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG), a U.N.-backed anti-corruption commission active in the country until 2019. Over the last four years, many of the prosecutors and lawyers involved with the CICIG have been forced to flee Guatemala. With Zamora’s imprisonment, Giammattei’s administration turned its attention to journalists at other outlets, particularly investigative reporters.   

In May of this year, international organizations conducted a mission to monitor freedom of expression and press freedom in Guatemala ahead of the elections. The mission reported a troubling atmosphere of intimidation, fear, and self-censorship among journalists, leading to many refraining from putting their names on their work for fears of reprisals. The journalists and communicators interviewed said that the intimidation strategy against press freedom has become a systemic issue, involving state representatives, the private business sector, and organized crime. 

In a March 2020 report, as Giammattei was about to take power, CPJ outlined concerns for press freedom in Guatemala, including the use of criminal p deroceedings to retaliate against journalists; fears that journalists who covered the CICIG and anti-corruption efforts might be targets for aggrieved politicians and other powerful individuals; and concerns that rural and indigenous journalists faced discrimination and threats from criminal groups and corrupt officials. Only two years later, Giammattei’s administration delivered a critical blow to the press by putting Zamora behind bars.

Elected officials have long sought to silence Zamora and his news outlet. In 2013 and 2014, then-President Otto Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti Elias filed criminal complaints against Zamora in response to his critical reporting and commentary.

Past attacks on Zamora also include:

• August 2008: Zamora was abducted, drugged, and beaten. 
• June 24, 2003: Zamora and his family were attacked and intimidated by an armed group at their home in Guatemala City. 
• May 15, 1996: Two grenades were tossed from a vehicle when Zamora was dining in a Guatemala City restaurant, damaging his car.

The attacks on Zamora serve as a stark testament to the erosion of freedom of speech and the criminalization of journalism in Guatemala. Officials must end this malicious retaliation against him and respect the rule of law. It is time for Zamora to be released.

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Reporters Without Borders (RSF) condemns the six-year jail sentence that has been imposed – just days ahead of Guatemala’s general elections – on José Rubén Zamora, the publisher of a newspaper critical of the government. Held in appalling conditions, Zamora must be freed at once and this sentence, the latest example of the government’s growing authoritarianism, must be overturned.

The founder and owner of the national daily El Periódico, Zamora was sentenced on 14 June to six years in prison on a trumped-up charge of laundering the equivalent of 35,000 euros that he supposedly obtained from a businessman in return for a promise not to publish damaging information about him.

Held for the past ten and a half months, Zamora denies the charge – which was brought against him as part of the government’s attempts to reduce him to silence – and has announced his intention to appeal.

During a visit to Guatemala with other press freedom NGOs last month, RSF confirmed that he is being held in appalling conditions. Aged 66, he has lost 16 kilos and has been subjected to constant isolation since his arrest in July 2022. He told members of the NGO delegation that he has also been subjected to psychological torture on several occasions since his arrest.

The judicial harassment of El Periódico forced this leading daily to close after 27 years of existence but it will not silence its founder. This cruel persecution must stop now. We deplore José Rubén Zamora’s six-year prison sentence and the mistreatment to which he has been subjected, and we are very concerned about his state of health. He must be freed and his conviction must be overturned. It confirms the growing authoritarianism in Guatemala and bodes ill for the future of press freedom in a country that is electing a new president in just over a week.

Zamora was arrested on 19 July 2022, five days after El Periódico published information about cases of corruption involving people close to President Alejandro Giammattei. Eight journalists who used to work for the newspaper are also accused of obstructing justice in connection with a separate case against Zamora. Most of them have fled the country, as has Zamora’s wife, who left the day before the verdict was announced.

The campaign for Guatemala’s presidential and legislative elections on 25 June, in which Giammattei is constitutionally barred from running for a second term, has been marked by the electoral tribunal’s decisions to ban several leading candidates, resulting in accusations of bias in favour of Giammattei’s allies.

The press freedom situation on eve of the elections is worrying. RSF and the other members of the NGO coalition that visited Guatemala last month will publish a detailed report on their findings on 22 June.

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IAPA President Michael Greenspon pointed out that several Guatemalan journalists have had to leave the country for fear of manipulation of the justice system

The malice of the Guatemalan government against freedom of the press is once again in evidence with the request for 40 years in prison for journalist José Rubén Zamora by the Public Prosecutor’s Office, said today the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).

“We ask the Guatemalan government, given the suspicions of a lack of independence of the public powers, to put an end to its intimidating attitude against journalism and not continue damaging democracy in its country,” said IAPA President Michael Greenspon, global director of Licensing and Printing Innovation from The New York Times.

Greenspon pointed out that several Guatemalan journalists have had to leave the country for fear of manipulation of the justice system and due to signs that the Guatemalan government is using this case to intimidate and try to neutralize the press’s oversight.

The president of the IAPA’s Press Freedom and Information Committee, Carlos Jornet, observed that after a trial with multiple irregularities – money laundering, blackmail, and influence peddling, among other charges – the prosecution office now seeks a disproportionate sentence against a journalist whom they have already kept in jail for ten months.

“Eight other journalists and columnists of elPeriódico are also under official investigation for alleged obstruction of justice, including one of our former presidents, Gonzalo Marroquín, and the former director of the outlet, Julia Corado. Both had to leave the country,” said Jornet, the editor of the Argentine newspaper La Voz del Interior.

The newspaper elPeriódico closed its doors as a digital outlet on May 15, five months after ceasing to circulate in print. According to elPeriódico, the “fabricated case” against its president followed an official strategy after 300 days of political persecution and economic pressure.

In its report on Guatemala during the biannual meeting in April, the IAPA denounced a lack of due process and highlighted that the government used the Public Ministry to file charges against Zamora’s lawyers to block his possibilities of defense, and against other journalists who only gave their opinions on the case.

At the end of a visit to Guatemala in December 2022, an international delegation from the IAPA concluded that “the weakness in the functioning of the institutions is expressed in the lack of independence of the public powers.” The IAPA mission met with Zamora in prison, attended a conference in court, and met with officials from the Executive Branch, the Public Ministry, and civil society and human rights representatives.

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The mission’s conclusions are extremely worrisome, not only for the right of journalists and communicators to inform the public, but for the essential  right of citizens to receive this information in order to make their own free and conscious decisions.

In Guatemala, a system of intimidation, silencing, and restrictions on the free exercise of journalism is intensifying. In a country where only 16% of the population trusts the Supreme Electoral Tribunal as guarantor of a democratic electoral process (as per a recent survey by Prensa Libre), such restrictions on the press may further tarnish the credibility of the upcoming election.

The persecution of journalists is not a new development in Guatemala. The press – especially community media in areas of the country where national and international companies work in tandem with organised crime and local public officials to silence journalistic investigations – has historically faced threats.

The mission has observed that the press is increasingly seen as a threat to an alliance between the State and private actors seeking to control institutions, sustain corrupt arrangements, and perpetuate impunity in this country. Hence, the harassment and criminalization of journalists and communicators has become a new form of censorship. This trend began during the government of Jimmy Morales, intensified under the administration of Alejandro Giammattei, and could worsen during the elections.

The judicial persecution  of José Rubén Zamora and journalists from El Periódico, including efforts to  financially starve  this media outlet, ultimately leading to its closure on Monday, is an example of how this repressive system selects strategic targets to create intimidating examples for the press in general. Daring to denounce the corruption and impunity embedded in the Guatemalan state was enough to trigger this persecution. Unfortunately, the case of El Periódico was not an isolated incident.

On the eve of elections, in a country claiming to be a democracy, this mission noted other worrisome cases for various forms of journalism, including the persecution of Carlos Choc and Robinson Ortega, the arbitrary incarceration of Anastasia Mejía, the illegal detention of Norma Sancir, and the attacks endured by Sonny Figueroa.

 Journalists often leave their columns or articles unsigned for fear of reprisals. Reporters have become targets when summoned to testify to reveal their confidential sources and have been included among the defendants when covering high-profile criminal cases. At least 20 journalists have left the country after receiving threats or being criminally charged for coverage that exposed powerful figures. Others are under surveillance, or have received death threats, sometimes from political candidates. The arbitrary use of official state advertising and government pressure on advertisers reinforces efforts to silence media. The attacks by coordinated computer networks such as the Fundación Contra el Terrorismo, resulting in constant digital harassment and intimidation, encourage self-censorship by reporters. Sexism, racism, homophobia, and class-based attacks, as well as other intersections, are aggravating factors for the violence endured by journalists in the course of doing their work.

The institutional response to these issues has been lacking. Although Guatemala has a specialised prosecution unit for crimes against journalists, most cases of intimidation and aggression against the press go uninvestigated and unpunished, such as the recent cases of homicide, including that of Mario Ortega (2020). All journalists and civil society representatives interviewed as part of this mission expressed distrust of this institution. The Human Rights Ombudsman’s Office, which should follow up on cases of aggression against the press, is also failing to fulfil its mandate in this regard. While the State is wholly ineffective in investigating attacks against the press and protecting journalists, it is quick to accuse and criminalise them.

Access to state information is restricted. The law that should in theory guarantee access to public information is unenforced, in clear violation of the right of the population to scrutinise the work of public officials. This lack of transparency also affects the Supreme Electoral Tribunal, where an internal memorandum prevents officials from speaking to the press. 

In light of this grave scenario, the mission has concluded that without a free and independent press there can be no free and fair elections, and without free and fair elections there can be no true democracy. Thus, the Guatemalan State must take urgent measures to guarantee the right to inform and be informed.

Therefore, we call on public authorities to respect and protect freedom of expression and of the press as a condition to guarantee democracy and the legitimacy of the electoral process. It must establish safe and favourable conditions for the exercise of journalistic work throughout the country. At the same time, the mission urges the international community not to neglect its duty to promote and defend human rights throughout the world.

Finally, the mission recognizes the courageous work of journalists and communicators in Guatemala and their contribution to the construction of a more just, pluralistic and democratic society.

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In response to the announcement that the independent Guatemalan newspaper elPeriódico would cease online publication on Monday, May 15, the Committee to Protect Journalists issued the following statement:

“The decision of the elPeriódico newspaper to cease publication is the result of the President Alejandro Giammattei administration’s judicial and financial harassment of the outlet’s founder, José Rubén Zamora, and its journalists for their critical reporting on corruption,” said Carlos Martínez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director. “The international community should send a clear message ahead of Guatemala’s upcoming presidential elections by demanding that Giammattei immediately release Zamora.”

Zamora, who has been in pre-trial detention since July 29, 2022, went to trial on May 2, 2023, on money laundering charges. Zamora and eight elPeriódico journalists and columnists are also under investigation for obstruction of justice based on their coverage of the legal proceedings. In April, a judge ordered the arrest of three lawyers defending Zamora.

ElPeriódico ended its print edition due to “political and economic pressure” in December 2022, but had continued to publish on its website.

“The closure of elPeriódico after 26 years of doing great journalism is devastating. The simple fact of doing journalism–investigating and denouncing corruption–must not be criminalized,” José Zamora, son of José Rubén Zamora, told CPJ by email. “One hundred [and] sixty-six exceptional professionals have lost their jobs, and 17 million citizens have lost an important source of information to them.”

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