During February 2007, journalists Freddy Cano and Luis Alberto Corzo of Radio Líder were threatened by telephone by persons urging them to stop using their programme to broadcast accusations about alleged administrative irregularities committed during the administration of the former president of Arequipa’s regional government, Daniel Vera Ballón. The city of Arequipa is located in southwestern Peru.
The radio station’s manager, Luis Lazo Rodríguez, told IPYS that since 8 March, there has been interference in the station’s broadcast signal whenever Cano and Corzo’s programme is being broadcasted. They suspect this might be a ploy to stop the reporting on the accusations against Vera Ballón.
According to the station’s technical personnel, the noise interfering with the audibility of the broadcast may be being generated by a clandestine transmitter using the same radio frequency [The station’s assigned mediumwave frequency is 1240 kHz, but the World Radio TV Handbook 2007 says that it has been reported on 1236 kHz].
Lazo told IPYS that towards the end of February a group of unidentified individuals attempted to enter the place where the radio station’s transmitter is kept; apparently with the intention of damaging it. Security guards stopped them.
The station has filed a complaint with the Ministry for Transport and Telecommunications and asked it to determine the location of the clandestine transmitter and to identify those responsible for operating it.
(Source: Instituto Prensa y Sociedad via IFEX)
(R Netherlands Media Network Weblog)
