Guatemalan outlet, elPeriódico, harassed after critical reporting [View all]

[Catherina]

Last edited Sat May 4, 2013, 05:43 AM - Edit history (1)

elPeriódico is a Left paper. The only one that prints the truth. The other supposed-semi-Left paper is Siglo XXI (much less courageous in my opinion. Their coverage of what's going on now is nonexistent. There's nothing about these important events on their front page). After that it's tabloids and the government line.

Link elPeriódico: to http://www.elperiodico.com.gt

Cyber attacks in Guatemala... Ummmm, very few ordinary people here have computers. The average monthly wage is $200. Most people don't even have phone lines. That narrows the list of suspects considerably.

Guatemalan outlet harassed after critical reporting

New York, May 2, 2013--The Guatemalan news outlet elPeriódico has been targeted in a series of cyberattacks as it published stories alleging corruption in President Otto Pérez Molina's administration. The Committee to Protect Journalists calls on authorities to investigate immediately and put an end to the harassment.

José Rubén Zamora, publisher of elPeriódico, told CPJ the attacks began as the outlet started publishing a series of critical articles in mid-2012. He said it had intensified after the publication of an article on April 8 called "A Fairy Tale Without a Happy Ending," which alleged corruption, embezzlement, and abuse of authority by President Pérez Molina and Vice President Roxana Baldetti. Both officials have denied the allegations of corruption.

On April 7, elPeriódico's website was targeted by a denial-of-service attack, the sixth in as many months, the outlet reported. A denial-of-service attack prevents a website from functioning normally by overloading its host server with external communications requests. ElPeriódico said the website disruptions were brief and that a technical analysis revealed the attacks had originated from computers in Guatemala City.

Zamora said in an interview with the Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas that he believed that authorities were behind the attacks. He told the Knight Center that all of the previous cyber-attacks had occurred shortly before or after the outlet had published articles alleging corruption or ties to organized crime within the government. Zamora also said that the outlet had lost advertising as a result of government pressure on private companies.

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Zamora told CPJ he feared the pressure could escalate and had sent some of his family out of the country for their safety. The prominent investigative journalist, a 1995 CPJ International Press Freedom Awardee, has been the target of violent attacks twice before.

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http://cpj.org/2013/05/guatemalan-outlet-harassed-after-critical-reportin.php