3 May 2010 | News and features
![]( "RADIO LA VOZ")
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
1 Apr 2010 | Awards, Awards year slider
[vc_row full_width=”stretch_row_content_no_spaces” full_height=”yes” css_animation=”fadeIn” css=”.vc_custom_1556717524900{background-image: url(https://www.indexoncensorship.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/awards-2010-1460×490.jpg?id=81563) !important;background-position: center !important;background-repeat: no-repeat !important;background-size: cover !important;}”][vc_column][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_custom_heading text=”FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION AWARDS 2010″ use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]Index on Censorship’s Freedom of Expression Awards exist to celebrate individuals or groups who have had a significant impact fighting censorship anywhere in the world.
- Awards were offered in five categories: Campaigning, Journalism, Publishing, Music and New Media
- There was a Special Commendation for journalist Heather Brooke
- Winners were honoured at a gala celebration in London at the Royal Institute of British Architects
[/vc_column_text][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/2″][vc_single_image image=”81571″ img_size=”full”][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Twitter” title=”New Media Award” profile_image=”81581″]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 also used as a powerful tool in protecting free expression in the UK when solicitors Carter-Ruck, acting on behalf of Trafigura, the multinational 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.[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Rashid Hajili” title=”Bindmans Law and Campaigning Award” profile_image=”81577″]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.”[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Radio La Voz” title=”Guardian Journalism Award” profile_image=”9072″]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 station’s aim 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 2009 after the government accused the station of “supporting violence against security forces” when deadly clashes shook the area. 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.[/staff][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Andalus Press” title=”Sage International Publishing Award” profile_image=”81574″]Founded in 2000, Andalus is a unique Israeli publishing house dedicated to the translation of Arabic literature and prose into Hebrew. The name reflects nostalgia for the period in Andalusia between the 8th and 15th centuries when Jewish and Arab cultures co-existed. Publisher and founder Yael Lerer hopes to reverse the decline of Hebrew-speaking Israelis reading Arab literature and promote a greater understanding of the region’s Arabic cultural heritage in Israeli society. Andalus publishes literature from Lebanon, Syria, Sudan and Algeria – countries it is nearly impossible for ordinary Israelis to visit – as well as Palestinian writers and poets. Andalus’s translations have appeared in Israeli schools and universities and have also encouraged other publishing houses to re-examine Arabic literature and scholarship.[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Mahsa Vahdat and Ferhat Tunç” title=”The Freemuse Award for Music” profile_image=”106574″]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 resists 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. She was also featured in the powerful film about 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.[/staff][/vc_column][vc_column width=”1/3″][staff name=”Heather Brooke” title=”Special Commendation” profile_image=”81575″]Without journalist Heather Brooke’s tireless campaign to uncover details of MPs’ expenses, we might never have discovered the details of MPs’ duck houses, moats and trouser presses. Her dogged five-year freedom of information battle was later made into a film by BBC4. In 2008, Brooke won a High Court case against the House of Commons authorities, which forced them to release full details of MPs’ second home allowances. The court said: “We have no doubt that the public interest is at stake. We are not here dealing with idle gossip, or public curiosity about what in truth are trivialities. The expenditure of public money through the payment of MPs’ salaries and allowances is a matter of direct and reasonable interest to taxpayers.” Brooke is the author of The Silent State and Your Right to Know, a citizens’ guide to using the Freedom of Information Act. She is a consultant and presenter on Channel 4 Dispatches documentaries and an honorary professor at City University’s Department of Journalism.[/staff][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”JUDGING” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_column_text]
Criteria – Anyone involved in tackling free expression threats – either through journalism, campaigning, the arts or using digital techniques – is eligible for nomination. Any individual, group or NGO can nominate or self-nominate. There is no cost to apply.
Judges look for courage, creativity and resilience. We shortlist on the basis of those who are deemed to be making the greatest impact in tackling censorship in their chosen area, with a particular focus on topics that are little covered or tackled by others. Nominees must have had a recognisable impact in the past 12 months.
Where a judge comes from a nominee’s country, or where there is any other potential conflict of interest, the judge will abstain from voting in that category.
Panel – Each year Index recruits an independent panel of judges – leading world voices with diverse expertise across campaigning, journalism, the arts and human rights.
The judges for 2010 were:
[/vc_column_text][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Shaheed Fatima” title=”Barrister” profile_image=”81569″]Shaheed Fatima is a barrister whose work encompasses a wide range of human rights work, advising and acting for governments, NGOs and individuals on constitutional and human rights issues. Fatima won the Liberty/Justice Human Rights Lawyer of the Year Award in 2007 and has been ranked in both Chambers & Partners 2010 and Legal 500 2009. She has appeared in many cases, including recently at the European Court of Human Rights in a key case regarding the applicability of Articles 2 and 3 of the European Convention on Human Rights to killings by British soldiers in post-war Iraq.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Emily Bell” title=”Director of Digital Content, Guardian News and Media” profile_image=”81567″]Emily Bell has worked for the Observer and the Guardian for the past 18 years, setting up mediaguardian.co.uk in 2000 and becoming editor-in-chief of Guardian Unlimited in 2001. In September 2006, Bell was promoted to the new position of director of digital content for Guardian News and Media. Guardian.co.uk, the Guardian and Observer’s network of websites, has won many awards, including the prestigious Webby for Best Newspaper on the web in 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2009. Bell writes a regular column for Media Guardian on media policy issues.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Lemn Sissay” title=”Poet” profile_image=”81568″]Lemn Sissay is artist-in-residence at Southbank Centre and is an Artsadmin artist. Sissay is the author of five poetry collections and a number of stage plays. The Independent on Sunday described his poetry as “the songs of the street, declamatory, imaginative, hard-hitting”. Sissay is a patron of The Letterbox Club, an initiative to get books to children in social services care. He writes and presents radio documentaries and is a regular contributor to Radio 4’s Saturday Live. His short film What If was recently exhibited at the Royal Academy as part of its GSK Contemporary season.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][vc_row_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Caroline Michel” title=”Chief Executive, PFD” profile_image=”81566″]Caroline Michel is Chief Executive of PFD, according to the Guardian “the most talked-about” literary agency. She joined PFD in 2007 – having previously worked at the rival William Morris Agency – with the aim of transforming PFD into a multi-faceted, talent-seeking agency spanning multimedia, books and television. In total, Michel has over 25 years’ experience in publishing, having run the Vintage imprint at Random House and Harper Press at HarperCollins. She is also a governor of the British Film Institute and a board member of English PEN.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][staff name=”Lindsey Hilsum” title=”Journalist, Channel 4 News” profile_image=”80223″]Lindsey Hilsum is international editor for Channel 4 News. She won the 2005 Royal Television Society (RTS) Journalist of the Year award for her reporting from Fallujah and Beslan. In 2003 she won the RTS Specialist Journalist of the Year award for her reports from the Palestinian refugee camp Jenin. During the 2003 Iraq war, she spent 10 weeks in Baghdad, and was in Belgrade during the NATO Kosovo campaign. She has spent extended periods in Zimbabwe and the Middle East, and headed C4N’s Beijing bureau from 2006 to 2008, covering the Tibetan uprising, the Sichuan earthquake and the Olympics.[/staff][/vc_column_inner][vc_column_inner width=”1/3″][/vc_column_inner][/vc_row_inner][/vc_column][/vc_row][vc_row][vc_column][vc_custom_heading text=”2010 GALA” font_container=”tag:h2|text_align:center” use_theme_fonts=”yes”][vc_media_grid element_width=”3″ grid_id=”vc_gid:1556717940555-e12333e1-b318-1″ include=”81628,81627,81626,81625,81624,81623,81622,81621,81620,81619,81618,81617,81616,81615,81614,81613,81612,81611,81610,81609,81608,81607,81606,81605,81604,81603,81602,81601,81600,81599,81598,81597,81596,81595,81594,81593,81592,81591,81590,81589,81588,81587,81586,81585,81584,81577,81576,81575,81574,81571″][/vc_column][/vc_row]
