Americas Overview
By Michael Kudlak
Leftist leaders, including President Hugo Chávez of Venezuela, Evo Morales of Bolivia and Néstor Kirchner of Argentina, among others, displayed an aggressive intolerance towards critical media, accusing journalists of anti-government bias, denying them interviews and access to information, and withholding state advertising to punish media outlets for their negative coverage.
Journalists attempting to report on official corruption, drug trafficking, human rights abuses and other sensitive topics continued to face harassment, threats, physical assaults and even death at the hands of those seeking to prevent the media from exposing their activities.
15 journalists were killed in the Americas in 2006, up from 11 in 2005. Seven journalists were murdered in Mexico, three in Colombia, two in Venezuela and one each in Brazil, Ecuador and Guatemala. One journalist went missing in Mexico and Paraguay, respectively. Several journalists were forced to flee into exile after receiving death threats.
Apart from threats and violent attacks, journalists in Latin America were also confronted with legal, administrative and economic harassment.
Journalists had to contend with a rash of litigation, including criminal defamation and "desacato" (insult) lawsuits and excessive punitive damage awards in civil suits, resulting in increased self-censorship. Various court rulings adverse to freedom of expression and press freedom, government restrictions on access to information, and the excessive use of force against reporters by police, security guards and the army further impeded the work of journalists in many Latin American countries. The allocation of official advertising to influence media coverage of government policies and activities presented another serious problem for journalists in Argentina, Paraguay and Uruguay, among other countries, where both private and state-run media depend heavily on state advertising.
In Argentina, access to government information remained limited under the administration of President Kirchner, who has yet to hold a single presidential press conference. Media outlets were hampered by the use of federal and provincial government advertising to influence editorial content. Four broadcast shows were unexpectedly cancelled, allegedly because of government pressure. Throughout the year, journalists faced threats, intimidation and physical attacks at the hands of local powerbrokers, drug traffickers and common criminals.
In Brazil, one journalist was killed in 2006. Freelancer Ajuricaba Monassa de Paula was beaten to death in broad daylight in the central square of Guapirimim, Rio de Janeiro state, by a municipal councillor. Other journalists, especially those investigating corruption, drug trafficking and other illegal activities outside the major urban areas of Rio de Janeiro and Săo Paulo, continued to face harassment, death threats and violent attacks. The media also had to contend with a rash of litigation, including criminal and civil defamation lawsuits, and various court rulings restricting press freedom, especially in the run-up to the general elections in October.
Long shackled by the military dictatorship led by General Augusto Pinochet, who died on 10 December, Chile’s media enjoyed a relatively free media climate, although several violent attacks against reporters occurred during the year, especially in the days following the former dictator’s death.
Although the number of journalists’ deaths has fallen under President Álvaro Uribe’s administration, Colombia remains one of the most dangerous countries in the Americas to practice journalism. Particularly in the provinces, journalists who attempted to expose corruption, drug trafficking and other illegal activities faced death threats, kidnappings and physical attacks by right-wing paramilitaries, leftist guerrillas, drug traffickers, and others. At least three journalists were murdered because of their profession, while numerous others were forced to go into hiding or flee into exile.
Despite Fidel Castro’s hospitalisation for intestinal surgery in July and the transfer of powers to his brother, Raul, Cuba’s Communist regime and its intelligence apparatus continued to exercise tight control over the media. Cuba remained the Western Hemisphere’s biggest jailer. Of the 28 journalists jailed in the massive crackdown on dissidents in March 2003, 22 were still in prison at the end of 2006. During the year, three journalists were released from prison, but three others were jailed.
After recent improvements in the country’s press freedom situation, Guatemala saw a resurgence of violence against journalists in 2006. One journalist, radio reporter Eduardo Maas Bol, was found shot to death in his car on a road between Guatemala City and the city of Cobán, capital of Alta Verapaz department.
With seven journalists killed, Mexico moved ahead of Colombia as the most dangerous country in the Americas for journalists. Frequent attacks on journalists reporting on corruption and drug trafficking, especially in the northern states bordering the U.S., led to widespread self-censorship. In the southern state of Oaxaca, journalists found themselves caught in the middle of a months’ long conflict between state governor Ulises Ruiz Ortiz and left-wing activists, which culminated in October with the death of U.S. journalist Bradley Will, who was shot dead during a demonstration.
Peru’s media have enjoyed an improved press freedom environment since the removal of Alberto Fujimori in 2000, but numerous violent attacks and threats against journalists, especially those reporting on corruption and drug trafficking in the country’s interior, were documented throughout the year. Several journalists covering the run-up to the presidential elections were also harassed, intimidated or attacked.
In Venezuela, where President Chávez won a third term in elections in December, the country’s privately-owned and largely pro-opposition media faced continued verbal and physical attacks, as well as legal and administrative harassment. Two journalists were killed. Jesús Flores Rojas, co-director of a local newspaper in the town of El Tigre in eastern Venezuela and a columnist for other publications in the area, was shot eight times in front of his home by an unidentified gunman. Jorge Aguirre, a photographer for the newspaper chain Cadena Capriles, was fatally shot while covering an anti-crime demonstration in the capital, Caracas.
Canada’s journalists were increasingly concerned over attempts to force journalists to reveal confidential sources and the willingness of the police to seize videotapes, notes and other material collected by reporters. The decision by the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper to ban TV coverage of the return of fallen Canadian troops from Afghanistan sparked heated debates over the public’s right to know versus concerns for family privacy.
In the United States, media attention focused on the ongoing CIA leak case involving Valerie Plame, whose identity as a covert CIA operative was first revealed by journalist Robert Novak in his syndicated column of 14 July 2003. Novak’s column, which attributed the information to "two senior administration officials," appeared just days after The New York Times published an op-ed piece by Plame’s husband, former U.S. ambassador Joseph Wilson, in which he challenged the Bush administration’s allegations that Iraq had sought to buy nuclear material in Africa. The political furore following Novak’s revelation prompted a criminal investigation into who disclosed Plame’s identity, and the indictment in October 2005 of I. Lewis Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney’s chief-of-staff, on charges of obstruction of justice, false statement and perjury. The nearly four-year investigation, in which some of the country’s most prominent political journalists were compelled to testify, has changed the nature of the reporter-source relationship, media observers said. If journalists can no longer protect their sources, confidential information may be harder to obtain in the future, they feared.
Throughout the year, U.S. journalists were under pressure to reveal their sources. Two San Francisco Chronicle reporters faced imprisonment after they were found in contempt of court in September for refusing to reveal who leaked grand jury testimony given during a criminal investigation into the alleged use of steroids by professional athletes. One journalist, Joshua Wolf, was jailed for contempt of court and still in prison at year’s end. Wolf, a San Francisco-based freelance video journalist was imprisoned on 1 August for refusing to comply with a grand jury subpoena to hand over unedited video footage of anti-G8 Summit protests he had filmed in San Francisco in July 2005. He was released one month later, but returned to prison in September after losing his appeal. These and other attempts to force journalists to reveal their sources or materials in federal cases around the country led to increased efforts to enact a federal shield law for reporters.