The letter in which three of the alleged victims, within the investigation for alleged sexual harassment against journalist Jorge Alfredo Vargas, announced that they will not participate in the process, sparked controversy around the procedure that was carried out to initiate the charge, which is ongoing.
EL TIEMPO revealed the statements of prosecutor 5, Patricia Hernández, in which she pointed out that the three journalists claimed that they had not even filed a complaint on the matter. In fact, unofficial versions claimed that it was the Ministry of Labor who initiated the criminal process. However, the head of that department, Antonio Sanguino, told EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit that his department never filed a complaint nor forwarded copies.
‘The record’ and the inspection
“Your Honor, indeed, as you report, the Prosecutor’s Office received this morning a letter addressed primarily to the lady judge presiding over this hearing, to the prosecutors who are part of this special task force. The victims, numbering three, request that their names be kept confidential in any judicial proceeding and waive, Your Honor, basically the representation that the public defender’s office could exercise regarding their rights in this process,” explained the prosecutor during the hearing.
And Minister Sanguino explained to this newspaper that following the complaints made by the media themselves, a commission was appointed in his department to carry out inspection visits: “I did not lead it because it is a gender issue and delegated it to the deputy minister. Our officials made visits to several media outlets and drew up inspection records.”
Minister Sanguino explained that the Prosecutor’s Office made an inspection visit to his department and in the framework of it obtained Caracol’s file with records included; “We did not forward copies nor file complaints”.
The procedure and the three victims
The inspectors, according to Sanguino, are women and are in charge of all complaints about sexual harassment in the workplace.
“The first thing is to say that we do it in the workplace, not only against Caracol or media outlets. I repeat, we do not forward copies, we do the inspection work,” said the senior official.
(Consult here all the articles from EL TIEMPO’s Investigative Unit)
And he added: “The inspectors collect the information and it is confidential. Sometimes it leaks, as many things leak to the media. Journalists are very thorough and find ways to access information, even if it is confidential. That doesn’t only happen to us, it happens to the Court, to the Prosecutor’s Office”.
He added that in the inspection, the Prosecutor’s Office requested documentary evidence that the ministry had after the inspections: “That documentary evidence was obtained by the ministry, by the inspectors at Caracol Television. We did not send names, we did not say these are the victims or anything like that. We are not a judicial authority”.
In any case, the process continues in the Prosecutor’s Office.
INVESTIGATIVE UNIT
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