Cecilia Valenzuela

In September Caretas had published an article accusing a journalist ? Cecilia Valenzuela, Zileri?s prot駩 and the director one of Peru?s most respected investigative television programs ? of using wiretaps to further her investigations.The Caretas story turned out to be wrong: the young reporter who wrote it later confessed to inventing the key interview.She was fired, and the episode quickly became known as Peru?s Jayson Blair moment.
...
The owner of Channel 9 received $50,000 to cancel a bothersome investigative series called Uncensored, directed by Cecilia Valenzuela.
...
In late 1993, Cecilia Valenzuela, then a young Caretas reporter, published an investigation that linked Montesinos to a death-squad responsible for two recent massacres.
...
Inside was a chicken, slashed and bloody, wrapped in black tape with an enlarged photo of Valenzuela tied to it.A week later, on her birthday, flowers were delivered to Valenzuela?s desk by a messenger.
...
The day after the press conference, Cecilia Valenzuela began publishing an investigation that named Montesinos as the mastermind of the deal.
...
If there is a television equivalent of the Correo phenomenon, it would be Cecilia Valenzuela?s weekly program, La Ventana Indiscreta.I visited her at the Channel 2 studio on a Sunday night to watch a live broadcast.In the center of a large sound studio bathed in orange light, Valenzuela sits at a glass table, where she interviews the week?s newsmakers.Seated in a semi-circle around her is her team of six young investigative reporters, whose quick, edgy video reports form the main segments of the ninety-minute show.
...
While highly regarded for her attacks on Montesinos and Fujimori during the 1990s, Valenzuela has drawn criticism from her peers now for her harsh criticism of Toledo?s government, and the form those attacks take.
...
The criticism, Valenzuela feels, comes from those who believe Peru has changed fundamentally from the days of the Fujimori regime.In her view, it hasn?t. ?The majority of journalists, and Peruvians in general, thought that with the shift from dictatorship to democracy, things would change from night to day.They thought the city would suddenly smell differently.But it still smells like shit,?Valenzuela tells me. ?Those who have power in my country always abuse it.Corruption in Peru is endemic: it wasn?t just the dictatorship of Fujimori, it has to do with the political class in this country.?

Like Correo?s Tafur, Valenzuela is in her early forties, a younger member of Lima?s journalism elite, which is dominated by men in their late fifties and sixties, and she largely dismisses what her older colleagues see as a decline in the quality of Peruvian journalism.Revealing corruption in Toledo?s government simply doesn?t require profound investigation, she argues. ?Under Fujimori, there was incredible corruption, but the corrupt people were very efficient.This government is inhabited by the most incapable, inept group of people we?ve seen in years.Every time you scratch the surface, a terrifying smell of putrefaction comes out.?

The crisis in the press is merely a reflection of the larger crisis in Peruvian society, she claims. ?Now nobody believes in anything: in politicians, in journalists, in priests.

In September Caretas had published an article accusing a journalist - Cecilia Valenzuela, Zileri's protégé and the director one of Peru's most respected investigative television programs - of using wiretaps to further her investigations.The Caretas story turned out to be wrong: the young reporter who wrote it later confessed to inventing the key interview.She was fired, and the episode quickly became known as Peru's Jayson Blair moment.
...
The owner of Channel 9 received $50,000 to cancel a bothersome investigative series called Uncensored, directed by Cecilia Valenzuela.
...
In late 1993, Cecilia Valenzuela, then a young Caretas reporter, published an investigation that linked Montesinos to a death-squad responsible for two recent massacres.
...
Inside was a chicken, slashed and bloody, wrapped in black tape with an enlarged photo of Valenzuela tied to it.A week later, on her birthday, flowers were delivered to Valenzuela's desk by a messenger.
...
The day after the press conference, Cecilia Valenzuela began publishing an investigation that named Montesinos as the mastermind of the deal.
...
If there is a television equivalent of the Correo phenomenon, it would be Cecilia Valenzuela's weekly program, La Ventana Indiscreta.I visited her at the Channel 2 studio on a Sunday night to watch a live broadcast.In the center of a large sound studio bathed in orange light, Valenzuela sits at a glass table, where she interviews the week's newsmakers.Seated in a semi-circle around her is her team of six young investigative reporters, whose quick, edgy video reports form the main segments of the ninety-minute show.
...
While highly regarded for her attacks on Montesinos and Fujimori during the 1990s, Valenzuela has drawn criticism from her peers now for her harsh criticism of Toledo's government, and the form those attacks take.
...
The criticism, Valenzuela feels, comes from those who believe Peru has changed fundamentally from the days of the Fujimori regime.In her view, it hasn't.
...
Like Correo's Tafur, Valenzuela is in her early forties, a younger member of Lima's journalism elite, which is dominated by men in their late fifties and sixties, and she largely dismisses what her older colleagues see as a decline in the quality of Peruvian journalism.

226. At the end of August of 2000 , journalist Cecilia Valenzuela , director of the news agency imediaperu.com was the victim of harassment for the publication of a series of articles that questioned the role of the National Intelligence Service ( SIN ) in a case involving arms and drug trafficking.For several days , a station wagon was parked outside the agency office and on September 4 , a car attempted to run her over in front of her house.Valenzuela had been the target of a smear campaign by a sector of the Peruvian media known as prensa chicha. [ 229 ].

Cecilia Valenzuela, "Flaca," then a reporter for Caretas magazine.

If there was ever any doubt about the power of the press, consider the experiences of Peruvian journalist Cecilia Valenzuela.In the last decade, Valenzuela has been arrested, fired from several jobs and has received countless death threats, some from her own government.

Valenzuela's offense has been her steadfast reports on politics and the military in her country.Most recently, in September 2000, the 1993 IWMF Courage in Journalism Award winner published a report charging the Peruvian national intelligence service with trafficking in drugs and weapons.Her reward for careful investigative reporting was a physical assault.

Valenzuela has become a lightning rod because her reports are substantial, documented and, most important, have the power to sway public opinion.

Still, she is not the only reporter to suffer reprisals for telling the truth.And though many editors stand behind crusading reporters, others -- including some who fired Valenzuela in an effort to silence her -- are controlling the news.

In particular, CJFE is concerned about journalist Cecilia Valenzuela, who was under surveillance in early September after questioning the actions of the National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional, SIN) according to information collected by Reporters Sans Frontières (RSF).
...
Valenzuela is the director of the online news agency imediaperu.com and was pursued after the publication of a series of articles regarding the SIN's role in an arms and drug trafficking case.She received death threats and was subjected to several attacks which appeared to be related to the articles as well as mentions of human rights violations by the military on the program Aqui y Ahora (Here and Now), of which she is the director.We believe it is important to launch an investigation and ensure Valenzuela's safety.

In the case of Cecilia Valenzuela and numerous others unmentioned, it is imperative to ensure that they and others will be able to exercise their right to receive and impart information without fearing for their lives.

The leading impetus, Cecilia Valenzuela, is a young journalist who got her start in Caretas.She did the ground breaking reporting on the Colina massacre.She received the Courage in Journalism Award in 1993.She had a political TV program, Sin Censura, that was shut down in 1998 because it took a critical line against the Fujimori government.In September 2000, she was almost run down by a van outside her office.

Valenzuela's story is typical of many journalists.Independence is not rewarded and it can have a price.Most media owners don't want strong-minded reporters and editors.It complicates their power games.

Cecilia Valenzuela
...
Cecilia Valenzuela

Cecilia ValenzuelaIndependent Journalist

Read about Peruvian journalist Cecilia Valenzuela.The article describes Valenzuela as a "lightning rod" because her reports are:
...
Remember to pray for Valenzuela and others like her who face great danger when confronting the truth.

THREATENED : CECILIA VALENZUELA , PERU

In September 2000 , Cecilia Valenzuela , director of the Peruvian on-line news agency imediaperu , reported that a van with tinted windows had been seen parked in front of the agency's office for several days.Shortly afterwards she came close to being deliberately run over by a vehicle outside her house.At the same time , a well co-ordinated smear campaign against her unfolded in the press with articles appearing in a number of sensationalist newspapers allegedly controlled by the National Intelligence Service.The developments appeared to be linked to Valenzuela's reports on the illegal trafficking of arms to Colombia guerrillas which allegedly involved President Fujimori's right-hand man , Vladimiro Montesinos.

Valenzuela is a well-known investigative journalist in Peru having come to prominence in the last decade through her articles for the magazine Caritas and as a presenter of the Channel 9 television programme Sin Censura.During this time she has been the recipient of the head of a chicken , a birthday card with a death threat as the greeting , and a photograph of her spattered with blood.

Contatore visite