Guatemalan newspaper closes over ‘criminal persecution’

GUATEMALA CITY: An investigative newspaper in Guatemala that published reports on government corruption announced on Friday it was closing due to “criminal persecution and economic pressure.”

In March, a judge opened an investigation into journalists and columnists working for El Periodico. The newspaper´s founder, Jose Ruben Zamora, who has won several international press awards for his paper´s investigative journalism, was arrested last year and accused of money laundering and blackmail.

In March, a judge also opened a criminal proceeding against Zamora for conspiracy to obstruct justice. “With great sadness, we are forced to end the daily edition of El Periodico,” the newspaper said in a statement. “El Periodico will cease publishing any news on May 15,” the founder´s son Ramon Zamora told AFP. It was already forced to end its printed version last November.