The Association of Journalists of Guatemala (APG) condemned this Thursday, April 7, the “attacks” once morest the reporter for Prensa Libre and Guatevisión, Andrea Domínguez, by the director of the San Juan de Dios General Hospital, Gerardo Hernández, who accused her of having a “personal” persecution once morest him, being tabloid and lying in his reports related to the crisis that this hospital has been facing for several months.
“The Press Freedom Commission of the Association of Journalists of Guatemala (APG) views with concern the constant attacks on women journalists and the media, intending to silence them and avoid criticism and denunciations of their actions once morest State institutions, an attitude that we categorically reject and demand full respect for article 35 of the Constitution”, refers a statement from said press entity.
It reiterates that “recently, journalist Andrea Dominguez, a member of Prensa Libre and Guatevisión, suffered attacks and delegitimization by the director of the San Juan de Dios General Hospital, Gerardo Hernández, for the publications that he has made in the last month on different problems in that hospital, among them, the absence of medication and the death of a baby, with malnutrition, due to lack of medical care.
According to the APG, “Other women have previously suffered attacks, such is the case of Carolina Gamazo from the digital medium No-Ficción, who has been the object of constant sexual harassment through social networks. Likewise, Irma Alicia Velasquez She was attacked and accused of being racist for criticizing prosecutor Rafael Curruchiche.”
The APG adds that “The attitude of the director of the San Juan de Dios Hospital is one more act of attacking freedom of the press and free expression, Well, he had no qualms regarding accusing Prensa Libre of being “irresponsible and tabloid” for the publications that Andrea Dominguez had made regarding the death of a patient and the lack of antibiotics in the hospital.”
It reiterates that “Hernandez’s attitudes, far from being an isolated case, are a pattern that is repeated in the public administration, particularly in the government sector, in which employees consider themselves pristine and believe that any criticism of their function is a personal attack.” . Given their inability to dispel the accusations once morest them, these officials resort to attacks, discrediting and harassing journalists, and they intend to impose that the official version of the facts is an irrefutable truth”.
“The APG Press Freedom Commission demands Hernández and all public officials to stop the attacks, delegitimization and penalties once morest the media and journalists that fulfill their function of informing, analyzing and denouncing, with facts, all those behaviors that affect the population”, concludes the APG.
Hernández’s accusations occurred last Wednesday when Domínguez was covering a press conference to publicize advances in the care of patients with heart problems, but a cancer patient approached them and complained regarding lack of medication.
“This is another issue and it is another priority that patients need, this denotes opportunism and sensationalism to have exposed you in this way,” Hernández said to the patient who demanded attention. Nevertheless, the patient clarified that she was the one who sought out the journalists.
“Well, Andrea, you have been persecuting me for a long time, personally, it’s nothing more than personal, you take me out every day in the Free Press, I don’t understand what the problem is (…), you take the time to take a photo of the family carrying their coffin, charging me with that responsibility, which I imagine you must have some reason to do so”, the director accused the reporter during the press conference.
“I respect her a lot as a person and as a professional, but you have already transgressed my person a great deal and today I beg you to stop, because obviously that is an attack on me as a hospital administrator (…) your company has given me up to two weekly headlines and I don’t know how much money that has cost your company and I don’t know why they keep doing that. This hospital is moving forward, even if they don’t like it, ”he criticized.
“I don’t see any reason to look for three feet to the cat (…) but the truth is if it is something personal, then let’s solve it because I have nothing to hide from him (…) and if you continue to make me famous then for me there is no problem because I will continue working”, he referred.
The director of the Hospital also said that everything that has been published is a “lie”.
