After the meeting of the APU delegates with the Attorney General of the Nation, Juan Gómez, it was indicated that the 6th Shift Sexual Crimes Prosecutor, Mariana Alfaro, recognized that the search request was unnecessary, because those same tests could have been achieved with an exhortation or a request to the radio.
Alternative mechanisms
The former Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) of the Organization of American States (OAS), Edison Lanza, stated that “an alternative mechanism should always be chosen in a judicial investigation when there is a right constitutional at stake.
“You can summon to testify, you can testify, you can cross public information and then take a definition. There are alternative mechanisms and an alternative mechanism must always be chosen, when there is a constitutional right at stake,” Lanza said in statements to Underlined.
Both the Constitution of the Republic and Law 16,099 guarantee the right of journalists to reserve their sources. “Journalists will have the right to protect themselves in professional secrecy regarding the sources of information of the news that they disseminate in the media.”
There are also international pacts and treaties that establish that “the confidentiality of journalistic sources is part of the right to freedom of the press. Otherwise, in a democratic country, journalism can hardly be done,” Lanza said.
