Amid the polarization the country is experiencing due to the election vote count, last Sunday the television program *Cuarto Poder* aired a report titled “The Faces Seeking Confrontation in the Streets,” identifying Pável Yábar—a journalist with the Alternative Press and director of the digital channel Yachay Wasy—as one of the alleged “instigators.”
Beyond the “confrontational” tone of the report itself, it reveals a biased approach because, in addition to calling him an “instigator,” it links Yábar to an “attack on a media outlet” and places him alongside “activists and organizations linked to radical sectors such as Movadef” (Movement for Amnesty and Fundamental Rights), the political wing of Shining Path.
Upon learning of the report, journalist Pável Yábar reported that on June 13, he was assaulted and kidnapped in what appeared to be a politically motivated intimidation in the Los Olivos district of Lima. His belongings were stolen, his bank accounts were emptied, and his cell phone data was accessed. “They asked me who I voted for and said, ‘Why won’t you accept that Keiko won?’” The journalist filed a complaint at the Sol de Oro police station.
Pável Yábar has since received numerous expressions of solidarity and the support of the National Association of Journalists (ANP), which is demanding an independent investigation to determine whether there has been retaliation against journalists for their editorial stance.
The Voice of the Voiceless
The alternative press plays a decisive role in the electoral process and in the various demonstrations spontaneously organized by the public. It serves as the voice of the voiceless, operating independently of large commercial media conglomerates and reporting on current events in a direct and critical style, using digital channels that democratize information.
In Peru, the alternative press has expanded since 2021 (during Pedro Castillo’s administration), but its roots lie in regional newspapers (which shed light on the reality of marginalized areas) and it later expanded with the social media boom beginning in 2015. Globally, it has its roots in university communities, where alternative and critical journalistic research units are fostered.
Today, with Peru’s mass media landscape highly concentrated, the alternative press represents an important source of information for the public, who seek alternatives to the coverage provided by traditional media—which, in many cases, all report the same news agenda in unison.
However, the stigmatization of the alternative press’s work is a latent risk, especially in a country where 140 attacks on journalists and media outlets have been recorded so far this year.
