A/HRC/39/17/Add.3 automatically involves restrictions on the right to a defence guaranteed under international human rights standards. 54. In some of these cases, companies or large landowners participate as persons associating themselves with the prosecution against indigenous defenders and play a fundamental role in ensuring that criminal proceedings are held. In that context, allegations of collusion by prosecutors and judges with companies and landowners at the local level are a matter of deep concern. 55. The Special Rapporteur visited various indigenous representatives imprisoned on charges of this nature. At the Pretrial Detention Centre in District 18 of Guatemala City, she met Abelino Chub Caal, a human rights defender who had helped the indigenous communities in Sierra Santa Cruz in Izabal. The Constitutional Court had granted the Sierra Santa Cruz communities amparo to nullify property registrations in the area, which showed irregularities. Mr. Chub Caal has been in pretrial detention since 4 February 2017 on charges including aggravated trespass and unlawful association. He is being held 320 km away from his family. The Special Rapporteur is concerned that High-Risk Trial Court A decided to include Mr. Chub Caal in the trial. 56. At the Cobán Pretrial Centre, in Alta Verapaz, the Special Rapporteur visited a number of imprisoned indigenous representatives, including representatives of the Choctún Basilá community, and Bernardo Caal Xól, who submitted the amparo application on behalf of the indigenous communities affected by the Oxec power plant. He was arrested in January 2018 on charges of aggravated robbery and aggravated false imprisonment. Prior to his arrest, he had been subjected to acts of intimidation and a campaign of defamation on social media. 57. Both Abelino Chub Caal and Bernardo Caal Xól stated that they feared for their safety. The Special Rapporteur calls on the Government to take steps to ensure that their physical integrity, and that of other indigenous defenders deprived of their liberty, is protected and emphasizes the country’s obligations under ILO Convention No. 169, article 10 of which stipulates that preference should be given to methods of punishment other than confinement in prison when penalties are imposed on members of indigenous peoples. 58. The launch of criminal proceedings against indigenous authorities and leaders who are defending their rights is generally preceded by defamation campaigns, on social media and elsewhere, depicting them as violent criminals, or even terrorists, with a view to discrediting their legitimate exercise of their rights. For example, one chamber of commerce reported Bernardo Caal Xól to the Public Prosecution Service in March 2017 for “destabilizing the hydroelectric sector and causing conflict” and engaging in “activities harmful to national security”. 59. A related concern is the criminalization of community radio. This often takes the form of breaking into a radio station, seizing equipment and accusing the staff of criminal offences. Community radio stations that broadcast in indigenous languages constitute a crucial means of providing indigenous peoples with access to information, particularly in rural areas. The current General Telecommunications Act gives preference to commercial radio stations and makes it almost impossible for communities to obtain a State-authorized radio frequency, notwithstanding a Constitutional Court ruling in 2012 urging the Congress to reform the law. The Special Rapporteur recalls that the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples provides that indigenous peoples have the right to establish their own media in their own languages (art. 16, para. 1). 60. Guatemala is faced with an alarming intensification of violence, which is shown in the increase in the number of murders of indigenous defenders who attempt to defend their rights over their traditional lands. Seven indigenous offenders were murdered during the visit of the Special Rapporteur and over the following days. The Special Rapporteur strongly condemns these murders. She calls on the Government to ensure that they are duly investigated and that the perpetrators are brought to justice, in order to avoid impunity and an environment in which attacks against persons who defend their rights are tolerated. 61. She is also concerned at the risk that opportunities for the defence of human rights are being closed off, particularly with the passage through the Congress of Bill No. 5257, GE.18-13268 11