One of Latin America's most highly regarded journalists, whose stories have helped topple a president and sparked a criminal investigation into government misconduct, was recovering from intense chemotherapy when he received more bad news: Peruvian prosecutors were investigating him on bribery charges.
Gustavo Gorritti, 76, a journalist and editor-in-chief of Peru's Investigative Media Organization, is no stranger to trouble.
In the 1990s, he was kidnapped by members of a secret death squad that Peruvian investigators later determined was led by former President Alberto Fujimori, and Gorritti has spent years reporting on corruption and human rights abuses under the Fujimori regime.
More recently, he helped expose the massive bribery scandal known as “Operation Car Wash,” which led to the arrests and resignations of government officials across Latin America.
Now Goriti himself faces prison.
Peruvian prosecutors are investigating Goriti on allegations of bribery, allegations he provided favorable press coverage in exchange for leaking government information, a charge he denies.
Journalists and free speech advocates say the charges are politically motivated and designed to punish Goriti for his past research.
Press freedom groups say the case against him is one of a number of attacks on independent media in Peru and part of a growing movement to censor journalists in Latin American countries.
“An increasing number of politicians are attacking journalists and the media in their speeches,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Political actors are openly stoking distrust in the press and encouraging polarization, using disinformation campaigns, false prosecutions and state propaganda.”
In Peru, analysts say the targeting of journalists reflects a broader backsliding in democracy.
The conservative coalition in Parliament is trying to consolidate its power by circumventing the legislative process and placing allies in the country's courts, electoral authorities and the attorney general's office.
Conservative lawmakers also passed legislation making it harder to investigate, prosecute and punish corruption, and made constitutional changes to give the legislature more power.
And they are increasingly using that power to attack journalists.
Paola Ugas, the journalist who exposed years of child sexual abuse and corruption within Peru's powerful religious institutions, is facing multiple criminal investigations, including money laundering charges.
Other journalists have been convicted of defamation for reporting on politicians, religious organisations and sports figures.
International press freedom advocates agree that Peru has become an increasingly hostile environment for journalists. Over the past two years, Peru's ranking in the Press Freedom Index managed by Reporters Without Borders has plummeted, dropping from 125th to 77th, the biggest drop of any Latin American country.
In a recent survey by Freedom House, a human rights group that rates countries around the world, Peru's rating last year was downgraded from “free” to “partly free.”
The group said the country's “judicial independence is weakening” and “high-profile corruption scandals have eroded public trust in the government, while bitter conflicts within a highly fragmented political class have repeatedly sparked political turmoil.”
Goriti is editor-in-chief of IDL-Reporteros, a Peruvian investigative website known for exposing corruption among powerful people.
He began his career in the 1980s documenting the rise of the violent “Path of Light” rebel group and exposed drug trafficking ties among senior intelligence officials under Fujimori, who investigators say later ordered his kidnapping.
The kidnapping incident contributed to Fujimori's eventual conviction on various charges in 2009 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
Goriti moved to Panama, where he wrote a Panamanian newspaper exposing links between government officials and drug traffickers.
His reporting suggests that all four of Peru's former presidents, who held power from 2001 to 2020, were involved in some kind of wrongdoing. One of them, Alan Garcia, died of a gunshot wound to the head in his home after authorities swooped in to arrest him.
Goriti said the bribery investigation stood out despite decades of persecution.
“When Fujimori was in power, there was imminent physical danger,” he said in an interview. But now, he said, the current administration is “trying to make the entire justice system its own tool. It's much more intense than it was before.”
“This action against one of our most prominent journalists is shocking,” said Arthur Romeu, Latin America director of Reporters Without Borders.
After years of dictatorship under Fujimori, Peru's 2000 elections ushered in a flourishing era of democracy, economic growth and freedom of expression.
But in recent years, the economy has slumped, trust in government has plummeted and the courts have increasingly been used to silence critics.
Goriti and other journalists have also faced harassment from right-wing groups who have demonstrated in front of their offices and thrown feces at their homes. Right-wing television stations frequently spread false information about independent journalists, accusing Goriti of being a criminal mastermind.
As part of the investigation, prosecutors are also asking Goriti to turn over the cellphone he used in the report and to disclose his sources, but he has refused.
Jonathan Castro, a political reporter and podcast editor, said the lawsuit against Goriti has made other journalists' jobs more difficult.
“Some sources have stopped providing information out of fear,” he said.
The government has previously brought defamation cases against journalists but is increasingly pursuing more serious criminal prosecutions.
Ugas, a journalist accused of money laundering, said in an interview that she had received death threats on social media and been verbally abused in the streets of the capital, Lima, as a result of the disinformation campaign against her, which included false claims that she was smuggling uranium and plutonium with the family of Nobel Prize-winning author Mario Vargas Llosa.
“There's no filter,” she said. “It's all so ridiculous that you think no one will believe it.”
