2002 World Press Freedom Review_Overview of The Americas
By Michael Kudlak
It was another deadly year for the continent’s journalists, who were seen as legitimate targets by an increasing number of individuals and groups. Twenty-two journalists were killed, making the Americas the most dangerous region in the world to work in as a journalist. Fifteen journalists were killed in Colombia, three in Mexico, two in Brazil, and one each in Bolivia and Venezuela.
Scores of others were threatened, harassed or physically attacked by corrupt officials, organised criminals and others seeking to prevent the media from exposing their activities.
When not confronted with violent attacks or threats, journalists faced legal, administrative and economic pressure from the authorities.
Latin America’s journalists had to contend with a barrage of litigation, including charges of criminal defamation, libel and slander. So-called "insult" (desacato) laws protecting the honour of public officials remained on the statute books and were frequently used by the authorities. Laws adverse to freedom of expression, including legislation requiring journalists to possess licences, degrees, or membership in journalists associations, or "colegios", in order to exercise their profession, were passed or under consideration by a number of legislatures.
In some countries, governments sought to use official advertising or taxes to influence media coverage. Journalists in several countries complained about a lack of access to public records and information, or the excessive use of force by the police or military. The climate of intolerance in many Latin American countries has led to a situation in which self-censorship, especially with regard to politically sensitive issues, has become commonplace.
The ongoing recession has had a massive impact on the media in many countries in the Americas. The print press, in particular, suffered from circulation losses and a severe drop in advertising. In Argentina and Uruguay, among other countries, the situation was exacerbated by heavy tax burdens.
Once again, Colombia proved to be the most dangerous country in the world in which to practice journalism. President Alvaro Uribe’s campaign pledge to clamp down on the propagators of violence has had little immediate impact on the plight of the country’s journalists, who continued to be targeted by leftist rebels, right-wing paramilitaries, drug traffickers and common criminals. 15 journalists were killed. Others were kidnapped, forced to leave the country or go into hiding because of death threats. Several media outlets were bombed, causing heavy damage.
In Argentina, the year was marked by numerous cases of harassment and attacks against journalists, excessive police force, and various court rulings adverse to press freedom. In a blow to the impunity that so often accompanies the killing of journalists in Latin America, a former Buenos Aires police chief was sentenced to life in prison for his part in the 1997 murder of photographer José Luis Cabezas.
In Brazil, journalists who exposed corruption, drug trafficking and other illegal activities, particularly in the country’s interior, continued to face threats, harassment, physical attacks and even death at the hands of local power brokers and criminals. Brazilians were shocked by the brutal slaying in June of Tim Lopes, an award-winning investigative reporter for TV Globo, by drug traffickers in one of Rio de Janeiro’s impoverished hillside shantytowns, or "favelas".
Chile’s media were generally able to operate freely, although the criminal charges of "insult" brought against television commentator Eduardo Yáńez and the seizure by the authorities of journalist Cristóbal Peńa’s book, "Cecilia, la vida en llamas", called to mind the dark days of suppression under General Augusto Pinochet’s military dictatorship.
In Cuba, Fidel Castro’s one-party state continued to clamp down on the country’s independent press. The authorities systematically monitored, harassed, threatened and detained journalists. Bernardo Arévalo Padrón, founder of the independent news agency Línea Sur Press, remained behind bars, serving a six-year prison term for "insulting" the president. Three other journalists, Carlos Alberto Domínguez, Carlos Brizuela Yera and Léster Téllez Castro, were also in prison facing various charges.
In Haiti, the year saw an increase in threats and the use of violence against journalists by government supporters, including gangs from the slum quarters of Haiti’s main towns, who increasingly viewed journalists as participants in the struggle for political power.
With the exception of Cuba and Haiti, the media in the Caribbean region were generally able to operate without significant interference, although the existence of libel laws enabling courts to award impossibly high damages remained a serious threat looming over the heads of media executives.
In Mexico, journalists investigating drug trafficking and corruption, especially on the U.S.-Mexico border, continued to be harassed, threatened and assaulted. Three journalists were murdered, at least two of them because of their reporting on alleged links between officials and drug traffickers. Two men were sentenced to 13-year prison terms for the 1998 murder of U.S. journalist Philip True.
The fall of disgraced former president Alberto Fujimori has led to a freer and more independent media in Peru, although journalists who exposed corruption and other illegal activities continued to face threats, physical attacks and legal harassment. In November, almost nine years after being arrested on charges of "terrorism", Javier Tuanama Valera, former editor-in-chief of Hechos magazine, was released from prison under the terms of a pardon extended by President Alejandro Toledo. One other journalist, Mata Jara Berrospi, remained in jail on dubious terrorism charges.
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez, who was briefly deposed in a coup d’état in April, continued to lash out at the country’s independent and largely opposition media. His frequent public diatribes were seen as an incitement to violence against the media. One journalist, Jorge Ibraín Tortoza Cruz, was shot dead by a military sniper while covering violent clashes between Chávez supporters and opposition demonstrators. Scores of others were verbally and physically attacked by groups close to the government, including the so-called Bolivarian Circles.
Canada’s newest media giant, CanWest Global Communications Corp., displayed an apparent disrespect for the principles of press freedom, forcing its newspapers to follow a common editorial line on key national and international issues, and reprimanding, suspending and even dismissing employees who dissented publicly from this policy, including the long-time publisher of the Ottawa Citizen, Russell Mills, who was fired in June on the grounds that he had not consulted corporate headquarters before publishing an article alleging misconduct by Prime Minister Jean Chrétien.
As the United States struggled to come to terms with the devastating effects of September 11 and the Bush administration prepared for a possible war with Iraq, journalists and human rights groups expressed concern that the government’s attempts to further increase its surveillance and law enforcement powers would curtail civil liberties, including freedom of expression and of the press. Journalist Vanessa Leggett, who was jailed without bail on 20 July 2001 after refusing to give her interview notes to prosecutors, was released from a Houston prison on 4 January after a record 168 days’ incarceration. However, two other journalists, publisher David Carson and editor Edward Powers Jr. of The New Observer in Wyandotte County, Kansas, were convicted of criminal libel and faced a sentence of one year’s imprisonment after reporting that the mayor of the Unified Government of Wyandotte County/Kansas City and her husband, a district court judge, did not live in Wyandotte County and therefore could not hold public office in the county. The conviction was regarded as a serious blow for free press groups advocating the elimination of criminal libel in other parts of the American continent.