Muzzled press unable to cover Guatemalan elections freely

Saturday, June 24th 2023 - 10:43 UTC

In a joint report published on the eve of Guatemala’s presidential and legislative elections on 25 June, Reporters Without Borders (RSF) and nine other organisations denounce a policy of terror and persecution of the country’s journalists and media that will prevent them from covering the elections properly.

This report about the dramatic decline in press freedom in Guatemala is based on interviews with journalists, media outlets and civil society organisations during a joint visit to the country in May. Its damning conclusions are beyond dispute.

The use of violence and harassment against the media has grown alarmingly during the past three years. The media are increasingly subjected to systematic intimidation because they are seen as a threat by a barely tacit alliance between the state and businessmen linked to organised crime – an alliance that controls institutions and maintains corruption and impunity. The harassment and criminalisation of journalists has become a new form of censorship.

The six-year jail sentence imposed earlier this month on José Rubén Zamora, the imprisoned founder and director of the outspoken but now closed El Periódico newspaper, is one of the latest examples of how the media are gagged in Guatemala.

More:
https://rsf.org/en/muzzled-press-unable-cover-guatemalan-elections-freely