Ricardo Uceda
Ricardo Uceda | |
|---|---|
| Born | July 27, 1954 Chiclayo, Peru |
| Occupation | journalist |
| Known for | reporting on government corruption, La Cantuta Massacre |
| Awards | International Press Freedom Award (1993) International Press Institute (2000) Maria Moors Cabot prize (2000) |
Ricardo Uceda Pérez (born July 27, 1954)[1] is a Peruvian journalist notable for his award-winning coverage of military and government corruption.
Background
[edit]Uceda was born in Chiclayo, Peru in 1954.[1] He studied journalism at the Jaime Bausate y Mesa Institute of Journalism in Lima and economics and journalism at the National University of San Marcos.[1][2] He worked for the magazine El Mundo in 1974, then served short stints with the daily newspapers Expreso, El Diario, and El Nacional.[1] In 1987 he worked as an investigative reporter at the television station Canal 2 before becoming deputy director of the magazine Sí the following year.[1]
Anti-corruption journalism
[edit]During his tenure at Sí, Uceda published reports on the corruption of government officials, exposing army massacres and collaboration with drug lords.[2] He consistently refused to reveal the sources of his investigations, leading to numerous government cases against him.[2] He was also accused by government spokespeople of being connected with the Shining Path, though these charges were never substantiated.[2] In 1992, Sí ran a story implicating senior military officials in the Barrios Altos massacre, an incident in which the anti-communist death squad Grupo Colina killed fifteen partygoers, including an eight-year-old child, after mistaking them for Shining Path members.[3] Following the story, Uceda was the subject of a police investigation for "falsifying information", a charge of which he was later cleared.[2] An Americas Watch (an arm of Human Rights Watch) spokesperson condemned the investigation as being part of a general pattern of repression against journalists by the government of Alberto Fujimori.[4]
In one high-profile case in 1993, members of a dissatisfied army faction directed Uceda to a mass grave containing the corpses of nine students and one professor kidnapped from La Cantuta University.[5] Ten army officers and soldiers were eventually charged with the crime, which became known as the La Cantuta Massacre.[5] When angry officials accused Uceda of obstructing justice in response to his reporting—a crime punishable by a prison term—the Peruvian Congress held a vote to guarantee his safety.[1] Complicity in this massacre became one of the charges for which then-president Alberto Fujimori was subsequently tried and found guilty by a panel of three Peruvian judges.[6]
In 1994, Ricardo Uceda resigned as editor-in-chief of Sí to form a special investigative team at El Comercio, then Peru's most popular daily newspaper.[1] As with Uceda's Sí reporting, the Comercio team focused on cases of governmental corruption.[2] One of the team's most notable successes came in 1998, when they exposed the misuse of state funds intended for the survivors of El Niño-created floods and mudslides; the story resulted in the arrest and imprisonment of Civil Defence Chief General Homero Nureña.[1]
In 2004, he published the book Muerte en el Pentagonito: Los cementerios secretos del Ejército Peruano, which explored individual cases in the long conflict between the Shining Path and the Peruvian Army.[2]
Awards and recognition
[edit]Uceda was awarded a 1993 International Press Freedom Award of the Committee to Protect Journalists in recognition of his reporting on both the La Cantuta and Barrios Altos massacres.[7]
In 2000, the International Press Institute selected him as one of 50 World Press Freedom Heroes of the past half-century.[8] His book Muerte en el Pentagonito: Los cementerios secretos del Ejército Peruano was shortlisted for the Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage in 2005, losing to Scribbling the Cat: Travels with an African Soldier by UK author Alexandra Fuller.[9] In the same year, he won the Maria Moors Cabot prize of Columbia University, the oldest international award in the field of journalism.[10]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c d e f g h Michael Kudliak (2000). "IPI WORLD PRESS FREEDOM HEROES". freemedia.at. Archived from the original on 27 June 2010. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ a b c d e f g "Ricardo Uceda". Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. Archived from the original on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ "Peru to Pay Relatives for Massacre", Associated Press, 23 August 2001, accessed 1 June 2011
- ^ James Brooke (22 February 1993). "Peru's Leader Clears a Path With Sharp Elbows". New York Times. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ a b James Brooke (12 January 1994). "Army Officers' Trials to Test Democracy in Peru". New York Times. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ "Peru court finds Fujimori guilty". Agence France-Presse. 2009-04-07. Archived from the original on April 12, 2009. Retrieved 2009-04-07.
- ^ "Journalists Receive 1996 Press Freedom Awards". Committee to Protect Journalists. 1996. Retrieved 28 May 2011.
- ^ Michael Kudliak (2000). "Ricardo Uceda". freemedia.at. Archived from the original on 10 August 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ "Shortlist Authors 2005". Lettre Ulysses Award for the Art of Reportage. Retrieved 1 June 2011.
- ^ "History of the Cabot Prize". Columbia University. Archived from the original on 12 April 2011. Retrieved 1 June 2011.