"Doing Journalism Is a Crime": Guatemalan Publisher Jos Rubn Zamora Faces 40 Years Behind Bars

STORY JUNE 13, 2023

- video at link -

Prominent Guatemalan journalist José Rubén Zamora faces 40 years in prison in his sentencing hearing Wednesday for what press freedom and human rights groups say are inflated charges of money laundering. Zamora is the founder and president of the investigative newspaper El Periódico and has long reported on Guatemalan government corruption. El Periódico was forced to shut down last month after months of intensifying harassment and persecution from President Alejandro Giammattei’s right-wing government. The government has held Zamora “as a hostage” for nearly a year as part of its wider crackdown on the press, says his son José Carlos Zamora, a journalist based in Miami who is advocating for his father’s release.

(Amy Goodman)

Transcript at link:

https://www.democracynow.org/2023/6/13/jose_carlos_zamora_guatemala_censorship

(Excellent interview with the son of the journalist.)