1999 World Press Freedom Review_Overview of The Americas
By Michael Kudlak
1999 was another violent year for journalists working in Latin America. Seven journalists were killed in Colombia, one in Argentina, one in the Dominican Republic, one in Guatemala, and one in Peru. Scores of others were threatened, harassed or physically attacked by corrupt officials, drug traffickers and other criminal elements seeking to prevent the media from exposing their activities.
When not confronted with violent attacks or threats from criminal elements, Latin America’s journalists faced legal, administration and economic pressure from the authorities. Although government-sponsored violence has not been a major threat for journalists since the end of the military dictatorships, the authorities continue to use other methods to muzzle the media’s critical reporting.
Journalists faced a barrage of litigation in 1999, including charges of criminal defamation, libel and slander. Legal provisions adverse to press freedom – in particular so-called "desacato" or insult laws protecting the honour of public officials; laws intended to regulate the press; laws that require journalists to possess degrees, licences or membership in special associations before they can exercise their profession; and laws that ban the publication of pre-election opinion polls – remain on the books and were used in many Latin American countries. Moreover, restrictive bills were under consideration in a number of legislatures.
In Costa Rica, Honduras, Nicaragua and Uruguay, among other countries, governments sought to intimidate the media by using official advertising to either reward favourable coverage or punish critical reporting. Journalists in Argentina, El Salvador, Haiti, Mexico, Nicaragua, and Paraguay complained of a lack of access to public or official information. In other countries, notably the Dominican Republic, Haiti and Paraguay, abuses by the police were a cause for concern.
Once again Colombia proved to be the most dangerous country in Latin America to work in as a journalist. Seven journalists were killed – at least three of them because of their profession. Sixteen journalists were kidnapped and later released by left-wing guerrillas or right-wing paramilitary groups, while four others were forced into exile because of death threats. One media outlet was bombed, injuring three persons and causing heavy damage.
Fidel Castro’s Communist regime continued its official clampdown on journalists working outside the state media, arresting, detaining, harassing and threatening dozens of independent journalists. Four journalists are currently serving prison terms for "insulting" the head of state or for "dangerousness," making Cuba the only country in the Western hemisphere where journalists are currently imprisoned for exercising their profession.
In Peru, journalists were subjected to a systematic campaign of persecution as President Alberto Fujimori sought to control the press in anticipation of his bid for a third term in office. In addition to threats and physical attacks, a favourite method of intimidation included government-sponsored articles in the tabloid press attacking critical journalists. The country’s judiciary handed down several suspended prison sentences and stiff fines for criminal defamation. In September, President Fujimori’s government withdrew Peru from the jurisdiction of the Inter-American Court of Human Rights, the legal arm of the Organisation of America States (OAS), depriving Peruvian defendants of the right of appeal to an international court.
After ten years of hard times for the Argentine press under the administration of President Carlos Menem, the country’s journalists expected Fernando de la Rúa’s new government to improve the state of press freedom. However, hopes for an unfettered press were not immediately forthcoming as one journalist, Ricardo Gangeme, editor of El Informador Chubutense, was killed and another given a one year suspended jail sentence for defamation. Other journalists were harassed, threatened or physically attacked, while various court rulings adverse to freedom of expression were handed down. In a positive development, a Senate Commission was expected to approve a bill in December decriminalising libel and defamation.
In Bolivia, the government generally allowed the county’s media to operate freely, although it did launch legal proceedings against one magazine, Informe R, and established a special press tribunal to consider and try "crimes and offences" by the media.
In a positive development for press freedom in Brazil, the Chamber of Deputies debated a text which would revoke the press law of 1967, an archaic and authoritarian law introduced during the military government. However, the National Congress was considering another bill that would restrict press freedom by prohibiting news companies from disseminating statements by officials about ongoing police and court investigations.
In Chile, investigative journalist Alejandra Matus was forced to flee into exile after a Supreme Court judge filed a libel suit against her under the State Security Law following the launching of her book, "The Black Book of Chilean Justice," an exposé of the judiciary’s abuses of power under General Pinochet.
In Costa Rica, punitive press laws and recent court rulings have inhibited the full exercise of freedom of speech and of the press. Allegations that the government withheld official advertising from some publications in order to influence reporting, and the power of the government-subsidised journalists’ association to decide who can practice journalism, have also given grounds for concern.
One journalist was murdered in the Dominican Republic, although it was unclear if he was killed because of his profession. The Dominican media reported increasing infringements on press freedom, particularly abuses by the police, and expressed its concern over a resolution establishing direct control over news media with regard to campaign advertising and another resolution requiring journalists to possess a licence issued by a government agency in order to speak on radio or TV.
In Ecuador, journalists said that a new ten percent tax on the distribution and circulation of newspapers and magazines was a threat to press freedom and demanded its revocation.
Apart from complaints about the lack of access to President Francisco Flores, who took office in June, El Salvador’s journalists were allowed to operate freely, although they regarded the new penal code, which restricts their access to certain judicial proceedings, as a threat to press freedom.
In Guatemala, a US journalist, Larry Lee of the financial news magazine, Bridge News, was murdered in December. Human rights leaders predicted a strained relationship with the new president, Alvaro Arzú Portillo, because of his close ties to former military dictator General Efrain Ríos Montt, whose military regime in the early 1980s drew international condemnation for its brutality.
In the Western hemisphere’s poorest country, Haiti, several incidents of abuses against journalists, in particular rough treatment at the hands of the police, were reported. Journalists also complained of the tendency among certain authorities to reduce the media’s access to official information.
The Honduran media suffered under accusations of corruption. President Carlos Flores, who has received generally favourable coverage by the press since taking office in 1997, was accused of rewarding media owners who support his policies and punishing those who are critical.
With the exception of Francisco "Paco" Stanley, a prominent television show host who was killed in a hail of gunfire in June, no journalists were murdered in Mexico, although the number of journalists who were harassed, physically attacked or received death threats increased.
In Nicaragua, tension between the media and the conservative government of President Arnoldo Alemán increased due to mutual accusations of corruption. Alemán’s administration attacked journalists who sold advertising and accused a prominent TV commentator of receiving money from the comptroller-general, who was investigating the sources of Alemán’s wealth, while journalists’ organisations accused Alemán of intimidating critical media by withholding official information and state advertising.
As Panama prepared to exercise full sovereignty over its territory with the return of the Panama Canal, a bill repealing some of the more repressive provisions of the country’s press laws was hailed by many as a significant step forward for press freedom. The bill, which was signed by President Mireya Elisa Moscoso de Arias in December, eliminates two of the country’s "gag laws," which were used to stifle press freedom in the past.
Paraguay’s journalists reported increasing abuses against the media in their country as members of the press faced harassment, physical attacks, death threats, and detention, often as a direct result of their investigations into corruption or while reporting on political developments. Journalists also complained that the new penal code, which took effect in November, restricted the media’s ability to freely gather and distribute information.
In Puerto Rico, the government’s intimidation of the island’s largest newspaper, El Nuevo Día, ended in May when the daily settled a federal lawsuit against Governor Rossello and six administration officials that claimed the government withheld official advertising to punish the paper.
Uruguay’s journalists said that the country’s presidential elections – in which the candidate of the ruling Colorado Party, Jorge Batlle, beat his rival from the centre-left opposition, Tabaré Vazquez – had a negative impact on press freedom in their country. They also expressed their concern that certain articles in the new penal code, scheduled to take effect in 2000, were a threat to press freedom.
In Venezuela, journalists feared that the new constitution, particularly an article which stipulates that reporting must be "timely, truthful, and impartial," could spell the beginning of the end of press freedom in their country. While President Hugo Chavez said the new basic law would strengthen democracy, his critics claimed that it concentrates too much power in the presidency and contains numerous controversial articles which could lead to censorship.
In Canada, newspaper magnate Conrad Black sued Prime Minister Jean Chrétien for petitioning Queen Elisabeth II to deny a life peerage to Canadian-born Black, who is also a British citizen. The prime minister, quoting an obscure 1919 Canadian parliamentary resolution, blocked Black’s appointment on the grounds that Canadian citizens could not accept foreign honours. The lawsuit was the dramatic climax of a ten-month feud between the two men. According to Black, Chrétien was taking revenge for the often stinging criticism of the prime minister and his cabinet in the press baron’s national daily, the National Post, which was launched in 1998.
Concrete threats to the free flow of information in the United States came mostly in the courts. The most important setbacks came in the nation’s highest court, the Supreme Court, which issued two decisions restricting the press. In the most important case for the news media, the Supreme Court ruled that law enforcement officers who permit journalists to accompany them on authorised searches of private homes violate a constitutional prohibition of "unreasonable searches and seizures." In the second unsettling decision, the Court reversed a lower court opinion that would have permitted greater public access to police records.
Finally, a draft Inter American Declaration on Freedom of Expression, prepared by the US Ambassador to the Organisation of America States, Victor Marrero, for presentation before the 29th regular session of the OAS General Assembly in Guatemala in June, was viewed as a threat to freedom of expression in the Western hemisphere. IPI joined the Inter American Press Association in criticising the draft declaration, which would have allowed for restrictions not currently in place and weakened existing freedom of expression safeguards. Among the most disturbing provisions contained in the text was Article 4, which stated that "the exercise of freedom of expression entails special duties and responsibilities" and "may be subject to certain restrictions previously and expressly established under domestic law and international obligations". Citing the concerns expressed by press freedom organisations, Ambassador Marrero requested that the draft be withdrawn and that a revised draft be taken under consideration no later than the 30th regular session of the General Assembly, which will be held in Canada from June 4-6, 2000.