5 March 2010
(CERIGUA/IFEX) - Óscar Clemente Marroquín, the editor of the daily "La Hora", has accused the government of using the Public Prosecutor's Office (Ministerio Público) to intimidate the paper after it published a story about a programme that hands out payments to families living in poverty. The government programme, called "Mi Familia Progresa" (My Family Moves Forward), has been criticised for lacking in transparency.
According to information in the local media, on 24 February 2010 "La Hora" was the first newspaper to publish information about a documentation centre where information about the programme's beneficiaries is processed. On the same day, opposition congresswoman Roxana Baldetti and the comptroller general, Carlos Mencos, went to the documentation centre to request information.
On several occasions Congresswoman Nineth Montenegro has also requested information about the programme so that it could be monitored, including by filing a request before the Supreme Court of Justice and the Constitutional Court.
After the publication of the information about the government programme, two employees from the Public Prosecutor's Office went to the newspaper's premises and asked if the paper's reporters had been sent to the documentation centre. "Apparently the government is developing new strategies to target the independent press, including by using the Public Prosecutor's Office to harass the media," Marroquín said.
Marroquín also noted that Attorney General Amílcar Velásquez Zárate and the secretary general of the Public Prosecutor's Office Council, Gloria Porras, told him that the visit by investigators to the media outlet's offices was inappropriate. "We will await the results of the investigation they promised," Marroquín said.
Human Rights Ombudsman Sergio Morales has opened an investigation into the incident to determine whether it constituted a freedom of expression violation.
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