Event Summary
On 2 July 2025, a precautionary measure issued against two journalists to refrain from reporting on the judicial process involving a municipal mayor of a rural town in the east of the country was annulled. The censorship had been ordered days ago, on 26 June 2025, by a judge in the town of Curuguaty, Department of Canindeyú, against two men from the digital press, corresponding to small towns in the region, prohibiting the publication of information on the judicial file opened to a member of the Municipal Council of Yasy Cañy, Department of San Pedro for the alleged crime of cattle rustling.
While the affected media indicated that the judge’s actions were linked to motives and political relationships, given the absence of arguments in the order ordered, the censorship measure was quickly rejected by the Paraguayan Journalists’ Union (SPP). The union denounced violation of the National Constitution and attack on freedom of expression, presenting claims to the Judiciary to sanction the responsible judge. In the same way, the two journalists achieved a prompt legal defense, observing the violation of fundamental rights and stating that the precautionary measure granted at the request of the mayor was unfounded since the facts disclosed corresponded to official and public documents.
A few days after the censorship measure obtained an immediate response from the affected union and speed in the defense of the pressmen, registering wide dissemination of the fact, with headlines in national media, the same judge who had issued the precautionary measure went on to revoke it. It dismissed the amparo action requested by the municipal mayor, indicating, among other points, that the journalists had acted within the framework of freedom of expression and respected the principle of presumption of innocence. The event illustrates on the one hand the sudden conditions of high vulnerability in which citizens’ rights to receive information and in turn to inform can be placed. It also illustrates the importance of the exercise of defense, particularly necessary in areas relatively distant from large cities.