2005 World Press Freedom Review_Overview of The Americas
By Michael Kudlak
Eleven journalists were killed in the Americas in 2005. Three journalists were murdered in Haiti, and two each in Brazil, Colombia and Mexico. Journalists were also killed in Ecuador and Nicaragua. Several journalists were forced to flee into exile.
In addition to threats and physical attacks, journalists in several Latin American countries had to contend with a barrage of litigation, including criminal defamation lawsuits and excessive punitive damage awards in civil suits, resulting in much self-censorship.
Media outlets criticised government restrictions on access to public information, often the result of anti-terrorist legislation introduced in response to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The use of official advertising to punish or reward publications and broadcasters was condemned as a threat to press freedom in Argentina, Colombia, El Salvador and Uruguay, among other countries.
In some countries, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Ecuador and Guatemala, the excessive use of force against journalists by the police and army was also a cause for concern.
In a positive development, several countries, including Chile, Guatemala, Honduras and Panama, eliminated "desacato" (insult) provisions from their statute books. And in a blow against impunity, several people received lengthy jail sentences for their role in the killing of journalists in Brazil and Colombia.
In Argentina, journalists complained about a strained relationship with President Néstor Kirchner and his administration’s increasing intolerance of press criticism. Libel remains a criminal offence and was frequently used to harass journalists. Threats and physical attacks against journalists, especially those investigating corruption and other illegal activities, were also commonplace.
In Brazil, one of the most dangerous countries in the Western Hemisphere to practice journalism, two journalists were killed in 2005. Outside the major urban areas of Rio de Janeiro, Săo Paulo and Brasilia, journalists attempting to investigate drug trafficking, corruption and other illegal activities continued to face threats, physical attacks and even death at the hands of local power brokers and criminals.
Long suppressed by General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship, the Chilean media were generally able to operate freely. In August, Congress and then-President Ricardo Lagos approved a bill, Law 20.048, eliminating "desacato" provisions from the Criminal Code.
In Colombia, where two journalists were killed in 2005, the number of journalists’ deaths has fallen under President Álvaro Uribe’s administration, although many contribute the decline in killings to an increase in self-censorship among media practitioners. Nevertheless, Colombia remains one of the world’s most dangerous countries for journalists. Particularly in the provinces, journalists who attempted to expose illegal activities and corruption, or report on the country’s decades-long civil war, faced death threats, kidnappings and physical attacks at the hands of right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas, drug traffickers, and others.
President Fidel Castro’s government continued to exercise tight control over Cuba’s journalists. Of the 28 journalists jailed in the massive crackdown on dissidents in March 2003, six were released in 2004. A further journalist, Mario Enrique Mayo Hernández, was released on medical parole in December 2005. Others went on hunger strikes to protest appalling hygiene conditions, beatings by fellow inmates and inadequate medical care. Throughout the year, state security agents continued to harass, detain and interrogate those independent journalists not arrested in the March 2003 crackdown.
Ecuador’s violent protests and civil unrest claimed the life of one journalist, Julio Augusto García Romero of the Chilean news agency, La Bocina. García Romero died in April as a result of police attempts to drive back demonstrators in the capital, Quito.
In Guatemala, journalists reported numerous cases of harassment, intimidation and violence against journalists, including the use of excessive force by the police. In a positive development, the Constitutional Court suspended the "desacato" provisions contained in the penal code.
In Honduras, the Supreme Court also decided to eliminate the country’s "desacato" law, Article 345 of the penal code, which provided for jail sentences of two to four years.
In Mexico, the end of 70 years of one-party rule by the Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) in 2000 initially led to an improvement in press freedom, but the relationship between President Vicente Fox and the press has deteriorated, while the number of violent attacks against reporters, especially those investigating drug trafficking and official corruption in the northern states bordering the U.S., has risen. At least two journalists were killed because of their work in 2005.
One journalist was killed in Nicaragua in 2005. Authorities initially said Rony Adolfo Olivas Olivas, a correspondent for the daily La Prensa, was shot during an argument with a taxi driver. However, Olivas had recently written articles on drug trafficking and also received death threats, leading local journalists’ organisations to believe he might have been killed because of his reporting. Olivas was the third Nicaraguan journalist to be murdered in the past two years.
In Paraguay, journalists complained about the increasing number of attacks against the media. Reporters, especially those who attempted to expose corruption, or cover strikes and protests, often faced intimidation, physical attacks and death threats.
The removal from office of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori in 2000 has led to a freer and more independent media in Peru. However, President Alejandro Toledo’s falling ratings have led to a more strained relationship between the government and the media. Physical assaults against journalists, particularly those reporting on events in the country’s interior, also increased.
In Venezuela, the administration of President Hugo Chávez tightened its grip on the press in 2005, as parts of the Social Responsibility Law for Radio and Television and amendments to the penal code, expanding the categories of government officials protected by "desacato" (insult) provisions, came into effect.
Canadian journalists complained about government restrictions on access to public records and information. Fears also persisted that anti-terrorism legislation, hastily introduced in the wake of the September 11, 2001, could infringe upon basic civil rights, including freedom of expression. In January, the outcome of the prosecution of freelance journalist Stephen Williams, involving 97 criminal charges for allegedly violating a publication ban connected to a trial, was considered to be "a step backwards for freedom of expression in Canada." Williams received a suspended sentence of three years’ probation in plea bargain. The Canadian Journalists for Free Expression (CJFE) said the case sent a chilling message to journalists who express criticism of police and judicial actions.
In the United States, Judith Miller of The New York Times spent 85 days in prison for refusing to disclose a confidential source. Her jailing met with widespread condemnation among press freedom organisations, who said it sent a terrible message to repressive regimes looking for justification to imprison critical journalists. Another journalist, Jim Taricani of WJAR television in Providence, Rhode Island, was freed in April, two months before the end of his six months’ house arrest. A U.S. District Judge had found Taricani guilty of criminal contempt in November 2004 for refusing to divulge the name of his source. Throughout the year, other U.S. journalists also came under pressure to reveal their sources.
Other issues that occupied the media during 2005 included restrictions on reporters’ access to information, particularly in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, and the continuing hostilities in Iraq, where a number of journalists were killed by U.S. fire, or held by U.S. forces for prolonged periods without charge or due process.