REPORT Nº 20/98 CASE 11.762 BARUCH IVCHER BRONSTEIN PERU March 3, 1998 I. BACKGROUND 1. Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, a Peruvian citizen and entrepreneur, was chairman of the board of directors and majority shareholder of "Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2" television. He acquired Peruvian nationality by virtue of a supreme decree, as required under the existing law. Under both the law in force at the time and the present law, aliens are not permitted to own a radio or television channel in Peru. 2. In early 1997, Television Channel 2 devoted several programs in its series "Contrapunto" to reports of alleged irregularities within the government, the most prominent being the programs that featured on the case of Army Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia del Ejército - SIE) agents Mariela Barreto Riofano and Leonor La Rosa Bustamante, the first of whom had been tortured and murdered. The coverage made public the private income tax declarations of Dr. Vladimiro Montecinos Torres, a presidential advisor and member of the National Intelligence Service (Servicio de Inteligencia Nacional - SIN); another important program revealed cases where the intelligence services had tapped the phones of various Peruvian officials and prominent figures. 3. After these news stories were aired, a number of congressmen sought a congressional investigation, whereupon a number of events occurred which Frecuencia Latina blamed on various agencies of the State, such as irregular investigations of Frecuencia Latina by officials from the Office of the National Tax Administration Superintendent, and military helicopter overflights of Mr Ivcher's businesses at various hours of the day. Frecuencia Latina continued to broadcast its news stories, which included programs on the operations planned against the media to threaten journalists and the opponents of the Government, as well as phone tapping of journalists, politicians and government officials. 4. On May 23, 1997, the Armed Forces Joint Command released Official Communique No. 00297 CCFFAA, which mentions Baruch Ivcher and underscores the fact that he was a naturalized Peruvian citizen. The press communique accused Baruch Ivcher of using the media to wage a campaign to slander the Armed Forces by misrepresenting situations, twisting facts and broadcasting "obviously malicious" commentaries. It added that slander of that type was unacceptable to the Armed Forces, which refused to accept the "tendentious and malicious campaign waged, because it was an abuse of freedom of expression and an attempt to alienate the public from the Armed Forces." 5. Then, on May 28, 1997, Supreme Decree No. 004-97-IN was published, which approves the regulations governing Nationality Act No. 26,574, Article 12 of which states that "naturalized citizenship shall be canceled ... D. For acts that could be detrimental to the national security and the interests of the State." Article 27 states that "Acquired Peruvian citizenship is lost ... "for the reasons stipulated in Article 12 of the Nationality Act." According to the petitioners, these Regulations Governing the Nationality Law ... give the President of the Republic the authority to revoke an individual's nationality, in flagrant violation of articles 2, paragraph 21, and 53 of the Peruvian Constitution. II. PETITIONERS 6. On June 9, 1997, a petition was received at the Commission in which Peruvian Congressman Javier Díez Canseco alleged facts leading to a reasonable presumption that the Peruvian State was setting the stage to arbitrarily strip Peruvian entrepreneur Baruch Ivcher Bronstein, the majority shareholder of television channel "Frecuencia Latina", of his citizenship, in violation of Article 20(3) of the American Convention. 1