A police interrogation of journalists without a prosecutor's order unleashes a national scandal

By Camila Torres

The shadows behind the police interrogation of journalists

What happened this Saturday in the newspaper El País is not a procedural error, it is a dangerous symptom. He Police interrogation of journalists that the editor Sebastián Cabrera suffered is a slap in the face to Uruguayan democracy. When a police officer decides, on his own and “without a prosecutor's order,” to enter a newsroom to take a journalist to testify about what he writes, he is not seeking justice; is looking to intimidate. What are the Police afraid of? What interests are being protected in the shadows of a section of Piriapolis?

Colorado deputy Felipe Schipani did not sit idly by and already announced a request for information from the Ministry of the Interior. It is not for less. The police summons to journalists lasted almost an hour, in an atmosphere of pressure where the content of a journalistic investigation into conflicts in Punta Colorada. It is unheard of that in a rule of law, the public force act ex officio against the press, bypassing the control of prosecutors, as if freedom of expression were a flagrant crime that they can repress at will.

Who gave the order for this police interrogation of journalists?

The excuse was defamation complaint filed by Richard Tesore, from the NGO SOS Marine Fauna Rescue. Until then, a common administrative procedure. What is anything but common is that the officers feel they have the power to “go look for” the journalist at their workplace. This call to testify by the police smells stale, of practices that we thought were banished and that today return to remind us that abuse of office is just around the corner. If there was no fiscal instruction, who was the official who believed himself above the Constitution?

The day the police came looking for me at the newsroom and questioned me for almost an hour at the police station for a complaint about a note.

I tell it in this chronicle today in Qué Pasa de @elpaisuy (after so many years... one is still surprised)https://t.co/hzvk046rqk pic.twitter.com/GE5wu6xLdp

— Sebastian Cabrera Arzuaga (@cabrera74) January 17, 2026

The most prestigious lawyers in the country have already shouted to the sky. A police questioning of the press about its sources or the tone of its reports is a direct violation of professional secrecy. That the Police interrogate a media worker for sixty minutes about “why he wrote what he wrote” is a mafia message to the rest of the union: “Be careful who you mess with because we can come and look for you.” The lack of guarantees in this episode is so great that it exposes the lack of training, or worse, the bad faith of the actors.

The Ministry of the Interior in the eye of the storm

Schipani's request seeks to unmask whether this Police interrogation of journalists It was an “excess of zeal” on the part of an officer or if there is a drop in line to harass the press that makes people uncomfortable. It is no coincidence that an editor for a research supplement is chosen. The Ministry of the Interior has the obligation to clarify what its troops were doing wasting time interrogating journalists while insecurity hits around every corner. Are they so afraid of a story about Punta Colorada that they need to mobilize patrol cars to “squeeze” an editor?

This regrettable act on the part of police officials It is a stain that the minister is going to have to clean with very solid explanations. In Uruguay, freedom of the press is not negotiated in a section. The precedent that was attempted to be set is disastrous: if a complainant has friends in the policeCan you ask whoever you like to be questioned? The arrogance police that was experienced in this case It is the reflection of an institution that, in some sectors, seems to have forgotten that it is there to protect rights, not to trample them.

An affront that demands immediate responsibilities

The journalistic community cannot and should not let this police investigation of press workers pass. If today it is an editor of El País, tomorrow it is any colleague from a local radio station or a portal in the interior. Freedom of expression is the last wall of defense that citizens have against power, and when Police try to jump that wall without a court order, we are in serious trouble. He Police interrogation of journalists that Sebastián Cabrera denounced must be the last of his kind; Those responsible must be punished so that the uniform stops being used as a tool of censorship.

We hope that the request for reports Felipe Schipani get to the bottom of the matter. We need first and last names and to know exactly what protocol was violated. Because when the Police act outside the law to question the press, the one who remains under suspicion is the Police themselves.

How far are those responsible for this procedure willing to go to hide the fact that they acted as a private strike force and not as public servants?