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Watchdog: Guatemala Needs to Win Back Trust of Media

VOA News

   Guatemala's fractured relationship with the press is being put to the
   test during the fight to contain the coronavirus, a report by the New
   York-based Committee to Protect Journalists found.

   At a time when Guatemalans need access to independent reporting on the
   coronavirus, conditions for press freedom are "unsound," CPJ said.

   The [1]report released Friday found that years of legal harassment,
   orchestrated online attacks, threats of violence, and impunity in
   attacks on the press have left the country's journalists wary of the
   government.

   Guatemalan journalists interviewed by CPJ said conditions deteriorated
   under former President Jimmy Morales, who attempted to discredit or
   undermine media covering the U.N.-backed International Commission
   Against Impunity in Guatemala (CICIG).

   Morales disbanded the independent body that was set up to investigate
   corruption in Guatemala. Its lead prosecutor was [2]barred from
   entering the country in 2018, and Morales declined to extend the
   CICIG's mandate when it expired in September.

   Morales told a news conference in Guatemala City last year that he
   ordered prosecutors to [3]start investigating allegations that the
   commission had acted outside the law and abused its power.

References

   1. https://cpj.org/reports/2020/03/guatemala-giammattei-journalists-online-harass-discredit-corruption-environment.php
   2. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/05/guatemala-cicig-ivan-velasquez-jimmy-morales-ban
   3. https://www.reuters.com/article/us-guatemala-corruption/guatemala-to-shut-down-un-anti-corruption-body-early-idUSKCN1P128Q

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