Watchdog Journalism in Peru: 16 Case Studies from Political Corruption to Journalism Scandals 2020 – 2025

DOI

10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_28How to use a DOI?

Keywords

Watchdog Journalism; Digital-native Media; Democracy; Peru

Abstract

This article analyzes the crisis of democratic legitimacy and structural political corruption in Peru from 2020 to 2025, a period during which the nation transitioned from a flawed democracy to a “hybrid regime” marked by severe institutional instability and constant presidential successions. With a non-probability qualitative methodology based on researcher judgment, this study examines 16 high-impact investigative journalism cases that exposed illicit acts across national and subnational governments. These cases range from public emergency malfeasance and patronage networks to opaque state resource usage and high-level illicit enrichment—including scandals such as “Vacunagate,” “Guacamaya Leaks,” and “Rolexgate”. Drawing upon Social Responsibility Theory and the public accountability model, the findings highlight a shift in corruption from large corporate schemes to fragmented and personalized networks. Furthermore, the corpus reveals a dual journalistic ecosystem: independent, digital-native media perform sustained watchdog journalism that uncovers systemic failures, while commercial television drives short-term mass outrage. Ultimately, the study underscores that despite operating in a hostile environment characterized by high political distrust, party fragmentation, political coercion and disinformation.

Copyright

© 2026 The Author(s)

Open Access

Open Access This chapter is licensed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/), which permits any noncommercial use, sharing, adaptation, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, as long as you give appropriate credit to the original author(s) and the source, provide a link to the Creative Commons license and indicate if changes were made.

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TY  - CONF
AU  - F. Martínez-Gutiérrez
AU  - R. Pérez-Vela
AU  - J. Cáceres
PY  - 2026
DA  - 2026/10/16
TI  - Watchdog Journalism in Peru: 16 Case Studies from Political Corruption to Journalism Scandals 2020 – 2025
BT  - Proceedings of the VI International Conference on Communication and Applied Technologies 2026 (ICOMTA 2026)
PB  - Atlantis Press
SP  - 304
EP  - 316
SN  - 2667-128X
UR  - https://doi.org/10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_28
DO  - 10.2991/978-94-6239-803-0_28
ID  - Martínez-Gutiérrez2026
ER  -