The post Index award winner wins radio licence fight appeared first on Index on Censorship.

Carlos Flores denounced the continuous harassment of his radio station by the Peruvian government, saying that “the government’s still trying to silence by different ways a voice that supports the rights of the Amazonian community of the region”.

Some of Peru’s most important journalists, lawyers and entrepreneurs attended the event celebrated at the headquarters of IPYS, showing their support for Radio La Voz.

A delegation of the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) is visiting the country on 20-21 May to discuss with the government, among other issues, the cancellation of La Voz’s license.

Pictures here
TV report here (in Spanish):
httpv://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WIVXWDeCTOw

Radio La Voz de Bagua fue homenajeada el pasado 19 de mayo en Lima, en un acto organizado por el Instituto de Prensa y Sociedad (IPYS), una prestigiosa organización peruana dedicada a la promoción del periodismo independiente. Carlos Flores Rojas, director de la radio, recibió en la ceremonia el Premio Periodismo “The Guardian”, otorgado por la organización británica Index on Censorship, en el marco de sus Premios 2010 a la Libertad de Expresión. El premio fue otorgado por la periodista Mónica González, directora de la publicación CIPER Chile, y premiada con el Premio Mundial a la Libertad de Prensa UNESCO/Guillermo Cano.

Carlos Flores volvió a denunciar el continuo hostigamiento al que se está viendo sometida su radio por parte del gobierno peruano, comentando que “el gobierno sigue intentando silenciar, por medio de diferentes vías de presión, una voz que apoya los derechos de la comunidad indígena.”

Algunas de las figuras más importantes figuras del periodismo, abogacía, y empresariado peruano quisieron mostrar su apoyo a Radio La Voz asistiendo al homenaje celebrado en la sede de IPYS.

Una comisión de la Sociedad Interamericana de Prensa (SIP) se encuentra estos días visitando el país, con el fin de tratar con el gobierno, entre otros aspectos, la cancelación de la licencia de Radio La Voz.

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Carlos Flores Borja, winner of an Index on Censorship Award, reports from Peru on how his radio station was closed down for reporting a government massacre, and his subsequent fight for justice

It was three in the morning on 5 June 2009, and the heat was already suffocating in Bagua Grande, in northern Peru. It had been virtually impossible to sleep for worrying about what might be about to happen. I said goodbye to my children, Leyla and José, giving them final instructions as they got ready to set out: “Take great care,” I told them. They were off to report on an event for my community radio station Radio la Voz that was to have severe repercussions for the region and for broadcasting.

Just 24 hours earlier, we had learned that more than 3,000 indigenous Indians from the valleys of the Marañón, Cenepa and Nieva rivers were going to be removed that day from the main road they had been occupying for the past two months. They were protesting against the government’s failure to repeal a dozen legislative decrees, following the Free Trade Agreement with the US, that were putting at risk the ownership of the land and woods where the Amazonian Indians had lived for thousands of years. President Alan García’s government had plans to appropriate these lands in order to sell them –– or concessions to them –– to national and international companies, permitting, for the first time, their commercial exploitation for minerals, gas and oil.

Some 50,000 indigenous people have lived in the district of Condorcanqui inside the Amazonian region of northeast Peru for thousands of years. They belong to the ethnic groups of the Awajún and the Wampis, formerly known as the Jíbaros. They had resisted conquest by the Chachapoyas, by the Inca and by the Spaniards, and were known as head-shrinkers. Since the establishment of the Republic of Peru, they continued living in the Amazonian highlands, guardians of the only forests still surviving.

On that day in June, I was getting ready to start transmitting from 5am onwards, opening with a programme of folkloric Andean music that preceded the La Voz news broadcast, which went out daily between 7 and 10am. The plan was to keep listeners informed of the police operation to unblock the Fernando Belaúnde highway. My son Léiter, the chief engineer of Radio La Voz, was in charge of the transmitter and opened the musical programme.

True to our principles, we had approved a radio schedule that included two news broadcasts, La Voz from 7-10am, and Sin Censura (Without Censorship) from 1-3pm, in addition to slots dedicated to the promotion of reading and literacy; the protection of the environment; solidarity with our brothers and sisters with degrees of disability; and to the spread of rural arts and culture.

At 6.10am on that fateful morning, we interrupted our music programme in order to make room for a phone call from my other son José, who announced that the removals had commenced 20 minutes earlier. The indigenous peoples were under attack from a massive quantity of teargas bombs, launched at them from both land and air. From that moment on, both José and Leyla maintained continuous communication with the radio station using their mobile phones. So it was that the population of Bagua Grande –– and of the whole of Peru –– began to learn of what became the most brutal aggression of the state against the peoples of the Awajún and the Wampis.

When news of the first deaths among both the indigenous peoples and the police began to arrive, none of us could believe it. What had first seemed a simple matter of removing people from a highway was turning into a massacre, at the end of which we might learn the precise body count for police fatalities, but would never learn the number of indigenous protesters who shared their fate. It was with great pain that I, up in my studio at Radio La Voz, and in charge of news broadcasts, had to transmit what my children were sending me from Curva del Diablo and Bagua Chica, at risk of their lives.

At 10am, our electricity was disconnected and the radio signal immediately went off air as a result. A few minutes later, we learnt from national news programmes that the Interior Minister Mercedes Cabanillas had accused us of using the airwaves to foment violence, inciting the natives to attack and kill police officers. Other senior members of the Aprista government made similar claims. They unfairly blamed us for the regrettable events that took place on that day. Silenced by the abusive exercise of police power, we were obliged to be dumb witnesses to the exercise of police violence against Bagua Chica and Bagua Grande. In both these provincial capitals, the population rose in protest against the massacre in Curva del Diablo, and it became necessary to add the number of those who sacrificed their lives in those towns to the death toll. We were not able to transmit news of any of this, but we recorded it all in photographs, which we later published in a magazine called Curva del Diablo.

In the days following the massacre, the government declared 11 indigenous people and 23 police officers dead. But according to indigenous groups, 50 protesters were killed and up to 400 disappeared.

On 8 June, the MTC published its decision to withdraw Radio Voz’s operating licence in the official daily El Peruano. Radio La Voz was shut down and my entire family, who had made huge sacrifices to invest in this small business, was left without work. A whole region that had depended on the radio station as its source of news was now deprived of independent reporting. In Peru, this is the price one pays to defend freedom of expression.

On learning of the fate of Radio La Voz, many groups came to its aid, in a show of solidarity. Over 100 broadcast stations belonging to the National Radio Network (CNR) began to cover the story and to call me for telephone interviews, in order to report developments in the Amazon region of the country. For a number of days, I was virtually chained to the phone answering calls, first from the national stations affiliated to the CNR, and then from abroad, where the news had spread thanks to the magic of the internet. Another national radio channel, incorporated by the Legal Defence Institute (IDL), called Ideelradio, also reported on what had happened at Curva del Diablo and the closure of Radio la Voz.

I would like to take this opportunity to make known my gratitude to the National Association of Peruvian Journalists (ANP); the Press and Social Institute (IPYS); the Association for Human Rights; the National Network of the Popular and Alternative Press; and the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (which went so far as to invite me to Washington to make my case known); the Rory Peck Trust; and to Index on Censorship for its support and solidarity in the struggle. My lasting gratitude is also due to the grassroots and popular organisations in the Amazon region of Peru, along with all those individuals who have expressed their concern for the situation at our radio station.

For the legal fight we now face, we have been represented by the solicitor Roberto Pereyra Chumbe, whose services IPYS has loaned us for free. So far, two of the representations he put before the MTC have been rejected. Those rejections bear witness to the viciousness of the government’s campaign against Radio La Voz, which it is determined to punish for having transmitted news of the massacre at Curva del Diablo and for bearing witness to its plan to appropriate land from the indigenous communities in the region.

Freedom of expression in Peru has been seriously violated by the present government, despite its boasts of being democratic. By trying to comply in every detail with the free-trade treaties he has signed with numerous countries, most notably the US, Alan Garcia will not hesitate to shut down the media that challenges his policies, not only Radio La Voz, but also other radio stations, including Oriente, Capline, Orión, Vecinal and many more. He is responsible for imprisoning journalists, including our colleague Alejandro Carrascal Carrasco, who is in the San Humberto jail at Bagua Grande. He attempts to take control of national television channels, as in the recent instance of América Televisión –Canal 4. He intimidates provincial newspapers, with the overriding intention of silencing those in the countryside, and has redistributed the radio stations between a group of businesses known to lack all respect for the environment. The majority of the mass media keep the businessmen as either allies or accomplices, thanks to the state publicity machine which offers them generous tax exemptions. None of us can afford to buy or subsidise the tiny provincial radio stations, so they close us down, impound our equipment, freeze our bank accounts and threaten to strangle us economically through a system of fines and other sanctions.

However, it remains the case that the government never imagined that a tiny radio station such as Radio La Voz would stand up to it. We do so because we deem freedom of expression as a fundamental and inalienable right that we will fight to the death to defend.

Translated by Amanda Hopkinson

This is an edited extract of an article that appears in the next edition of Index on Censorship, Radio Redux, out in June

Carlos Flores Borja is winner of the Guardian Journalism award at the Index on Censorship Freedom of Expression Awards 2010. All charges against Radio La Voz were dropped in February

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The Guardian Journalism Award

This award recognises journalism of dogged determination and bravery

Ahmet Altan/Taraf (Turkey)

As editor-in-chief of independent daily newspaper Taraf, Ahmet Altan bravely takes on the Turkish establishment by challenging the army’s role in civilian affairs, chiselling at enduring taboos and publishing allegations of military misconduct. Taraf manages to regularly upstage rivals and dominate the news agenda with its commitment to freedom of information and defence of democracy. It was instrumental in uncovering the “sledgehammer” plot to overthrow the Turkish government in 2009, a story that hit international headlines. In 2008, Altan came under pressure to reveal sources and hand over material connected to the paper’s coverage of an attack against a military unit. Despite being charged in 2008 with “denigrating Turkishness” for publishing an article on the Armenian genocide, Altan continues his work, ignoring fears for his own safety and the safety of his colleagues. Taraf stands out in the Turkish media landscape for its fearlessness, independence and editorial integrity.

Al Ayyam (Yemen)

The popular Yemeni daily al Ayyam, based in Aden, is owned and edited by the Bashraheel family, who founded the paper in 1958. The paper provides critical coverage of the political scene combined with stories on social issues such as poverty and homelessness. In May 2009, Yemen’s information minister banned publication of al Ayyam and seven other papers on the grounds that they were “harming national unity” by reporting on deadly clashes between government troops and protesters demanding more resources for the country’s impoverished south. Al Ayyam delivery trucks were twice seized and set on fire by people the paper described as government sympathisers. On 15 July, Anis Ahmed Mansour Hamida, a reporter for al Ayyam, was sentenced to 14 months in jail. Campaigners regarded it as part of a major campaign by the authorities against the paper. “After applying indirect censorship, the authorities have gone to a new level in their harassment of this independent publication,” said Reporters Sans Frontières.

Suzanne Breen (Northern Ireland)

Suzanne Breen is northern editor for Dublin newspaper the Sunday Tribune. In April 2009, police officers arrived at Breen’s home, demanding to see her journalistic materials and threatening her with sanctions under the Terrorism Act 2000. Breen had interviewed a member of the Real IRA, which claimed to be responsible for killing two British soldiers and a former Provisional IRA member who had been revealed to be an agent for British security forces. Breen went to court to fight for her right to protect her sources and herself and on 18 June 2009, the Recorder of Belfast accepted her legal team’s argument that to give up the material would amount to a breach of her right to life under the European Convention on Human Rights. Breen noted: “We are not detectives or agents or informants for the state. We exist to put information into the public domain…It is up to reporters and photographers to fight for press freedom, not to capitulate at the first police phone call, letter, or other approach.”

Radio La Voz (Peru)

Operating in Bagua Grande in the Utcubamba Region of Peru, Radio La Voz was founded in 2007 by respected broadcast journalist Carlos Flores Borja and his sons. The aim of the station is to broadcast cultural programmes and information about environmental protection and human rights, fight political corruption and support local communities. Radio La Voz lost its licence in June 2009 after the government accused the station of ‘supporting violence against security forces’ when deadly clashes shook the area in mid-2009. Thirty-four people were killed as Amazonian communities protested about the opening up of huge tracts of land to foreign investment. To date no government representative has offered any evidence to support the veracity of its allegation against the radio station. Flores Borja says that La Voz was only doing its duty as an independent media source. He claims “the government took advantage of the moment to silence a voice critical of its policies”. On 16 February 2010, the case against Radio La Voz was dropped.

Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award

This award is given to lawyers or campaigners who have fought repression, or have struggled to change political climates and perceptions. Special attention is given to people using or establishing legal precedents to fight injustice

Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele (Ethiopia)

Netsanet Demissie and Daniel Bekele wereimprisoned for two and half years for their efforts to ensure the 2005 Ethiopian elections were monitored legitimately, and for providing information and education about the election process to the electorate. They were convicted in April 2007 – alongside journalists, politicians, and civil society leaders – in a trial internationally regarded as a sham. The pair chose not to sign a letter of apology to the government, which would have secured them an early release; instead they contested the charges in court. After they were released from prison in March 2008 they continued to protest against the government’s moves to make the expression of dissent illegal, despite receiving threats. They are outstanding campaigners for social justice and the eradication of poverty, committed to bringing free speech, free press and free elections to the forefront of debate in Ethiopia.

Rashid Hajili (Azerbaijan)

Rashid Hajili is the chair of the Media Rights Institute in Azerbaijan, which monitors free expression and works for the protection of journalists and bloggers. In a country with an ever-worsening record on press freedom, Hajili is one of a small group of individuals who defends the rights of journalists and advocates for greater access to information. He has defended a number of prominent journalists, including imprisoned editor Eynulla Fatullayev. A leading voice in the campaign for media law reform in the country, Hajili is a prolific writer and tireless campaigner, who has drafted legislation on protection of sources and broadcasting freedom. In December 2009, he worked with the organisation Article 19 on a case in the European Court of Human Rights to decriminalise defamation. “A country where freedom of speech is suppressed cannot have a positive image in the international community”, says Hajili. “Lack of tolerance to criticism means that democratic principles and values do not function in this country.”

Human Rights Centre Memorial (Russia/Chechnya)

Human Rights Centre Memorial is a Russian campaign group that monitors and highlights human rights violations. It brings criminal cases to court, compiling lists of missing people, and investigating kidnappings and disappearances. In July 2009, one of its most respected and courageous activists, former journalist Natalya Estemirova was abducted and brutally murdered. Estemirova worked in the Grozny office of Memorial, she was a tenacious investigator of torture and human rights abuses in Chechnya. In a region where the murders of journalists and human rights defenders often go unpunished, there is little hope of bringing the killers to justice. Following the murder, the organisation suspended its work in Chechnya, but it has since resumed operations despite the extreme dangers of working in the region. The organisation is committed to keeping Chechnya on the international human rights agenda. “Memorial and this group of activists have set the standard for human rights work in Russia”, says Holly Cartner of Human Rights Watch.

Charter 97 (Belarus)

Charter 97 is a campaign movement dedicated to principles of independence, freedom, democracy and respect for human rights. In Belarus its website is the main independent source of information on human rights and free expression activities in the country. The site comes under constant attack by hackers thought to be working for the country’s secret service and Charter 97 are regularly forced to move offices. Along with her team, Head of Press Natallia Radzina works to bring to light the cases of arrest, detention and harassment of critical journalists and human rights activists, despite being arrested on a regular basis. “Only because of such courageous and talented people like Natallia Radzina and the whole team of Charter 97, devoted to truth and morality in journalism, do we Belarusians and the whole world know what is happening in the last dictatorship in Europe”, says Natalia Koliada of the Belarus Free Theatre.

New Media Award supported by Google

This award recognises the use of computer or internet technology to foster debate, argument or dissent. Nominations can also include those who enhance online freedom through the use of new technologies

Emin Abdullayev and Adnan Hajizade (Azerbaijan)

Emin Abdullayev – known as Milli – and Adnan Hajizade are two young Azeri bloggers who were charged with ‘hooliganism’ and sentenced to four years imprisonment in November 2009 after it was alleged they were involved in a fight. Both men had been actively using social media to mobilise opposition against the government, speaking out on a variety of issues, including government corruption, misuse of oil revenues, censorship and education. Several weeks prior to their arrest, the pair posted a video on YouTube mocking the government’s decision to spend a vast amount of money on importing two donkeys from Germany. Locals believe the tongue-in-cheek video angered the regime and was the real reason for their arrest. The Secretary General of the Council of Europe voiced concerns about the sentences and the ‘inevitable chilling effect on freedom of expression in Azerbaijan’. Their convictions were upheld in a March 2010 appeal hearing.

Yoani Sánchez (Cuba)

Writer Yoani Sánchez is best known for her Generation Y blog – a critical portrayal of life in Cuba under its current government. In November 2009, US President Barack Obama applauded her efforts to “empower fellow Cubans to express themselves through the use of technology”, he said her blog “provides the world [with] a unique window into the realities of daily life in Cuba”. In January 2009, Sánchez launched Voces Cubanas. This citizen journalism project seeks to provide a multimedia platform to independent bloggers in Cuba. She explained: “It is a website where all those who want to express ideas, put their projects online, can do so… I have the feeling that the Cuban blogosphere will play an important role in the democratisation of Cuba.” In November, Sánchez and three others were violently detained by men she claims were state agents. The vicious attack prevented them from attending a march against violence.

Twitter (USA)

Twitter is a free social networking and micro-blogging service that enables users to send and read messages with a 140-character limit. Twitter was thrust to the fore of international politics during the contested 2009 Iranian elections. During the huge protests that followed, the site played a pivotal role in mobilising protesters and facilitated a direct line of communication between demonstrators, news outlets and engaged people around the world. Maintaining its service in the face of a totalitarian regime, Twitter demonstrated how social networking can have a direct impact on the world stage. It was used as a powerful tool in protecting free expression in the UK when solicitors Carter-Ruck, acting on behalf of Trafigura, the multi-national oil company, tried to prevent the press from publishing details of a parliamentary question about a report into the alleged dumping of toxic waste in the Ivory Coast. Within hours ‘#trafigura’ and ‘#carterruck’ were the site’s most popular topics.

Ai Weiwei (China)

Ai Weiwei is a Chinese political activist, artist, curator and architectural designer. Ai, who is the next artist to take on the Tate Modern’s annual Turbine Hall commission, is very politically active. After the Sichuan earthquake of May 2008 he began an investigation into why so many schools had collapsed in the quake. By April 2009, he had published on his blog the names of the all 5,385 school children who died in the disaster. He began to be intimidated by plain-clothes policemen, his family and associates were also targeted. His blog was closed soon after. In August he was assaulted by armed police in Chengdu while attempting to attend the trial of fellow activist Tan Zuoren, who had been detained and accused of ‘undermining the authority of the state’ after calling for an investigation into the collapse of schools in the earthquake.

His installation, Remembering, commemorating the deaths of the Sichuan schoolchildren, opened at the Haus der Kunst gallery in Munich in October. “I call on people to be ‘obsessed citizens’, forever questioning and asking for accountability. That’s the only chance we have today of a healthy and happy life” says Ai Weiwei.

Sage International Publishing Award

This award is given to a publisher who has given new insight into issues or events, or shown a perspective not often acknowledged, or given a platform to new voices

Afghan PEN (Afghanistan)

In 2009, Afghan PEN published seven books, one novel, two short story anthologies and four poetry collections despite extremely limited resources. It publishes books that would not be available otherwise and also arranges literary performances outside the capital in areas still affected by war. The organisation publishes literature and poetry from all ethnic communities in the country, it has more than 1,000 members in four sections – Dari, Pashto, Uzbek and Turkmen – which annually rotate the presidency.

As well as monitoring free expression in Afghanistan; campaigning on individual cases – such as the murder of Afghan journalist Sultan Munadi in Kunduz; – and hosting weekly literary events; Aghan PEN will play a leading role in the 2010 Kabul Book Fair in 2010. They plan to publish more writing by Afghan women writers and, with the support of the Goethe Institute, they will host the annual national literary festival.

Jama Musse Jama (Somaliland)

Dr Jama Musse Jama is a Somaliland activist, author, publisher and founder/organiser of Hargeisa International Book Fair. In 2009, Jama published Weerane (The Mourning Tree), biography of Mohamed Barud Ali, one of a group of political activists known internationally as the Hargeisa Self-Help Group, who were imprisoned under the late dictator Siyad Barre. Jama is editor of www.redsea-online.com, the only forum dedicated to the exchange of views on Somaliland culture and literature in both English and Somali languages. The site also acts as online library and bookstore. Jama wrote and published Somali Writers’ Association 2008 book of the year, Freedom is Not Free, which explains to ordinary citizens the significance of Article 32 of the Somaliland constitution, which “guarantees the fundamental right of freedom of expression and makes unlawful all acts to subjugate the press and the media”. The book is part of a wider campaign in conjunction with Somaliland human rights groups for freedom of expression.

Yael Lerer/Andalus Publishing Press (Israel)

Founded in 2000, Andalus is a unique Israeli publishing house dedicated to the translation of Arabic literature and prose into Hebrew.

Saqi Books (Lebanon/ UK)

Saqi Books was founded in 1984 in London, publishing quality cutting-edge and authoritative voices from North Africa and the Middle East. Together with Dar al Saqi, its publishing house in Beirut, it has made a significant contribution to Arab cultural heritage around the world. Saqi has a reputation for publishing writing that challenges taboos and offers fresh perspectives on politics, current affairs and art. Its fiction and non-fiction lists encompass a diverse range of subjects – honour killings, food and drink in the so-called ‘Axis of Evil’ states, homosexuality in the Arab world and the history of black Britain among them. One of its chief aims is to promote freedom of expression in the Middle East, often in the face of restrictive censorship laws, and though many of its books are banned in the region, it continues to publish controversial and groundbreaking material.

Freemuse Award

This award is given to a musician that highlights issues around censorship and freedom of expression

Iran has a vibrant underground music scene that explodes tired clichés about Iranian society, and Mahsa Vahdat is a fabulous example of this sub-culture. Vahdat continues to resist the pressures placed on female musicians by conservative sectors of Iranian society. In 2009, she recorded an album with American Mighty Sam McClain called Scent of Reunion – Love songs across civilizations. Mahsa was also featured in the powerful film on underground music in Tehran called No One Knows About The Persian Cats. She has shown courage and bold resistance in continuing to follow her artistic ambitions despite obstacles.

For almost three decades Turkish musician Ferhat Tunç has insisted on exercising his right to perform his music, ignoring several court cases and other threats against him in recent years. He has continued to sing in the minority language Zaza (Dimli) and in Kurmanci (Kurdish), as well as in Turkish. He has firmly refused to succumb to any form of intimidation, without expressing any hatred against its perpetrators. Through his brave stand against censorship, Ferhat has actively propagated the strengthening of human rights and democracy in Turkey.
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