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Wasted book aucosta11/16/2023 The Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, adopted by the IACHR in 2000, asserts that criminal defamation laws violate freedom of expression guarantees. International jurisprudence has found that public officials, because of their role, should be subjected to greater public scrutiny. “Every single sentence is supported by documents, interviews, and sources that are public and verified,” Acosta said. Of the 55 sentences that Acuña said he considered offensive, Judge Raúl Jesús Vega said 34 were defamatory and censured the journalist for not corroborating the allegations. In the book, Acosta cited several public sources who alleged that Acuña was engaged in embezzlement, buying votes, and fraud. The charges stemmed from Acosta’s 2021 book, Money Like Popcorn: Secrets, Impunity, and the Fortune of César Acuña, which was published by Penguin Random House Peru. The judge also ordered Acosta, Pimentel, and Penguin Random House Peru to pay Acuña a total of 400,000 Peruvian soles ($102,608) in damages, according to the sentence. Acosta and Pimentel were both given two-year suspended prison sentences and will not serve prison time. On January 10, a Peruvian criminal court judge found Christopher Acosta, investigations editor at the private Lima broadcaster Latina Noticias, and Jerónimo Pimentel, editor of Penguin Random House Peru, guilty of defaming César Acuña, a former mayor, governor, congressman, and two-time presidential candidate. This disturbing resurgence represents a danger to freedom of expression in the region and could deter the aggressive reporting necessary for robust debate in a free and open society.Ī recent case in Peru, involving a prominent investigative reporter and an international publishing house, has sparked an outcry, including from the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR), the United Nations, the European Union, and the U.S., UK, and Canadian embassies in Lima. Despite the consensus that criminal defamation laws violate international freedom of expression standards, archaic defamation provisions are being used to target investigative journalists across Latin America.
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