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More than a year after recordings were leaked in which the then manager of RTVC, Juan Pablo Bieri, gave the order to take the program ‘Los Puros Criollos’ off the air, it was known that the Attorney General’s Office will impute the journalist Diana Díaz, who leaked those audios, the crime of using a matter subject to secrecy or secrecy (Article 419 of the Penal Code).
According to the accusing body, she violated the confidentiality clause that her contract had and that is why they are going to impute the charge, after a complaint by Bieri against her. This crime is punishable by a fine and the loss of employment or public office.
(Also read: The two pending investigations of Bieri in the Attorney General’s Office)
According to the Foundation for Press Freedom (FLIP), which defends Díaz, she was denounced by Juan Pablo Bieri in March 2019. The organization stated that “after a year of inactivity of the criminal investigation, it was recently resumed and since then it has been characterized by adopting aggressive and invasive intimidating measures. “
FLIP reported that on October 5, Díaz was questioned about the meeting of December 6, 2018, in which Juan Pablo Bieri spoke about the program ‘Los Puros Criollos’, and how the audio was released, pressing his incrimination. And on October 14, the journalist was summoned to the indictment hearing.
In the audios, released in January 2019, you can hear how Bieri talks with Diana Díaz (at that time, the director of Signal Colombia and who resigned), Martín Pimiento (management’s legal advisor) and Alejandra Cendales (advisor to the manager) about Santiago Rivas , presenter of ‘Los Puros Criollos’, whom he disqualifies. Too Bieri’s intention is heard to take that program off the grid or change its schedule to finally finish it.
“The series is over… And if ‘Los pure criollos’ is done again, it will be done with another person. There is no possibility that he (Santiago Rivas) will do it again. There is no possibility that I will work with this management again, with this company, in any co-production or production ”, were some of Bieri’s statements in the audio.
(It may interest you: The controversies of the officials of the Government of Iván Duque)
Regarding the announcement by the Prosecutor’s Office to charge Diaz, the director of FLIP, Jonathan Bock, said that this criminal investigation “uses illegitimate and disproportionate mechanisms.”
Through his social networks, Bock added that these acts of the Prosecutor’s Office are understood with the intention of “intimidating the source who has exposed himself for denouncing irregularities and the FLIP for wanting to defend her”, also referring to an inspection ordered by the accusing body to FLIP headquarters.
“The eventual inspection of the Foundation’s headquarters would affect the right to privacy, to the reservation of the source and to the defense of rights by FLIP, this is the fulfillment of its mandate, “concluded Bock.
It does not exist in the history of @FLIP_org a precedent where so flagrantly a State institution asked us to violate the reserve of the source and provide information entrusted to us by our benefactors. https://t.co/2tG1xhS7vQ
– Jonathan Bock (@goodluck_Bock) October 19, 2020
In fact, FLIP sent a letter to the Attorney General of the Nation Francisco Barbosa on Monday in which they state that the organization is very concerned about “the environment of fear and self-censorship that the initiation or progress of investigations by the Office of the Attorney General of the Nation against journalists, sources, media and groups “. The letter adds that to charge someone “who dared to report irregularities is to act contrary to international standards on whistleblower protection.”
The organization also expressed its concern that on October 8 the Prosecutor’s Office required FLIP inform a date for conducting a judicial inspection at your facilities, as well as informing if Díaz was there, to which offices he went and how many times, and asked to provide a copy of the recording obtained and published by said organization on January 23, 2019 about Bieri.
Furthermore, on October 15, the Prosecutor’s Office summoned three members of FLIP to attend a face-to-face interview in the criminal proceeding against Díaz. In this regard, FLIP stressed that it is constitutionally forbidden to summon a journalist to give testimony or an interview in relation to information provided by their sources.
For FLIP, which requested a meeting with Attorney General Barbosa to discuss these issues, it is unacceptable “to use institutional scaffolding, through the use of investigative, judicial, and administrative measures, to directly or indirectly constrain civil organizations that they are aimed at making constitutional guarantees effective, “and he said that these things create an environment of self-censorship.
For her part, Carolina Botero, director of the Karisma Foundation, a civil organization that works to promote human rights in the digital world, said that as a general rule, state entities must ensure transparency and only reserve what is consigned in the law, so the work meeting in a public entity is not reserved. But even if it were, he recalled that multiple international norms and treaties signed by Colombia protect whistleblowers of irregular or illegal acts “because the anti-corruption function prevails.”
And regarding the inspection of FLIP and the request that they deliver the recordings of entries and exits of several days to see if the journalist was there, the director of Karisma commented that there are less disproportionate ways to confirm this, and that in those recordings You may be exposing other people. On the other hand, he remembered that if a whistleblower talks about something through the media, there is also a protection against revealing the source.
This is clearly abusive and an attack on freedom of expression by the Prosecutor’s Office
“This is clearly abusive and an attack on freedom of expression by the Prosecutor’s Office,” Botero concluded.
The former rapporteur for freedom of expression of the IACHR, Edison Lanza, has also spoken about this case, who stated that the IACHR, in its report on Corruption and Human Rights, established that “Those who report human rights violations (in this case censorship) must be protected from criminal retaliation or administrative; no matter what motivates you to report. “
José Miguel Vivanco, director of the Human Rights Watch organization, also spoke about this process, who said that the accusation to Díaz is “a serious error and goes against international standards on the protection of whistleblowers.”
Other Justice notes that may interest you:
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-Fiscal Office imputes network charges within the FAC for fuel theft
-Gender violence is not on the media agenda
JUSTICE
On twitter: @JusticiaET
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