One of Latin America's most celebrated journalists, whose work has toppled presidents and launched criminal investigations into government wrongdoing, was recovering from an aggressive bout of chemotherapy when he received more bad news: A Peruvian prosecutor was investigating him for corruption .
Journalist Gustavo Gorriti, 76, editor-in-chief of an investigative news organization in Peru, is no stranger to trouble.
In the 1990s, he was kidnapped by members of a secret death squad that Peruvian investigators later determined was led by former president Alberto Fujimori. Gorriti had spent years reporting on the Fujimori government's corruption and human rights abuses.
Most recently, he helped expose a massive scandal known as Operation Carwash that led to the arrests and resignations of government officials across Latin America.
Now, Gorriti himself risks prison.
Peru's attorney general accused him of corruption, claiming he provided positive coverage in exchange for government leaks. Mr Gorriti denies the charges.
Journalists and free speech advocates say the prosecution is politically motivated, intended to punish Gorriti for his past investigations.
According to press freedom groups, the case against him is part of a series of attacks against independent media outlets in Peru, and part of a broader wave of efforts to censor journalists in a growing number of countries around the world. 'Central and South America.
“More and more politicians stigmatize journalists and the media in their speeches,” according to Reporters Without Borders. “Political actors employ disinformation campaigns, abusive prosecutions, and state propaganda that openly fuels distrust of the press and encourages polarization.”
In Peru, analysts say, the targeting of journalists reflects a broader democratic backsliding.
A conservative coalition in the legislature has sought to consolidate power by bypassing legislative procedures to pack the country's courts, election agencies and attorney general's office with allies.
Conservative lawmakers have also passed laws making it more difficult to investigate, prosecute and punish corruption cases and amended the constitution to increase the legislature's power.
And, increasingly, they are using this power to persecute journalists.
Paola Ugaz, a journalist who exposed years of child sexual abuse and corruption at an influential Peruvian religious organization, has faced several criminal investigations, including money laundering charges.
Other journalists have been convicted on defamation charges for reporting on politicians, religious organizations and sports officials.
International press freedom groups agree that Peru has become an increasingly hostile environment for journalists. Over the past two years, the country's ranking has fallen on the press freedom index run by Reporters Without Borders. It fell to 77 from 125 — the biggest drop of any Latin American country.
A recent study by Freedom House, a human rights organization that rates levels of freedom in countries around the world, lowered Peru's rating from “free” to “partly free” last year.
The group said the country had seen a “the weakening of judicial independence” and that “high-profile corruption scandals have eroded public trust in government, while bitter divisions within a highly fragmented political class have repeatedly produced political unrest.”
Gorriti is the editor-in-chief of IDL-Reporteros, a Peruvian investigative site known for breaking corruption stories involving powerful people.
He started to document the rise of the violent Sendero Luminoso rebel group in the 1980s, and exposed the drug trafficking links of senior intelligence officials under Fujimori, who, according to investigators, later ordered their kidnapping.
The kidnapping played a role in Mr. Fujimori's eventual conviction in 2009 for various crimes and a 25-year prison sentence.
Gorriti moved to Panama, where he exposed connections between government officials and drug traffickers for a Panamanian newspaper.
His investigations have implicated all four former Peruvian presidents who held power between 2001 and 2020 in some form of wrongdoing. One of them, Alan García, died by shooting himself in the head in his home after authorities arrived to arrest him.
Mr. Gorriti said that despite decades of what he described as persecution, the robbery investigation stood out.
“At the time Fujimori was in power, there was imminent physical danger,” he said in an interview. But now, he said, current government officials are “turning the entire justice system into an additional tool at their disposal. It was much more intense now than in the past.”
Artur Romeu, director of Reporters Without Borders' Latin America bureau, said it was “surprising that they would take such a step against one of the most recognized journalists.”
After years of authoritarian rule in Peru under Fujimori, the 2000 elections ushered in an era of democracy, economic growth and the flourishing of freedom of expression.
But in recent years the economy has faltered and there has been a loss of confidence in government. And increasingly the courts have been used to silence critics.
Gorriti and other journalists also faced harassment from right-wing groups who demonstrated outside their offices and threw feces into their homes. Right-wing TV channels often spread disinformation about independent journalists, accusing Gorriti of being a criminal mastermind.
As part of the investigation, the Prosecutor's Office also demands that Gorriti hand over the phones used in his reportage and reveal his sources. He refused to do it.
The case against Gorriti has made it harder for other journalists to do their jobs, said Jonathan Castro, a political journalist and podcast editor.
“There are sources who no longer provide information because they are afraid,” he said.
The government has pursued defamation cases against journalists in the past, but is pursuing increasingly serious criminal charges.
Ms. Ugaz, the journalist accused of money laundering, said in an interview that she had faced death threats on social media and verbal abuse on the streets of Lima, the capital, following disinformation campaigns against her. The misinformation includes false claims that she, along with the family of Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa, smuggled uranium and plutonium.
“There is no filter,” he said. “You would think it was all so absurd that no one would believe it.”
