1998 World Press Freedom Review_Overview of The Americas

While journalists in the Americas – with the notable exception of Cuba – were more independent than ever before, violent attacks on the media continued with impunity in 1998. Ten journalists were killed in Colombia, five in Mexico, four in Brazil, one in Guatemala, one in Peru, and one in Canada - the first assassination of an editor in that country’s history. Scores of others were threatened, harassed, detained, jailed, or physically attacked.

With the end of the military governments and the gradual establishment of multi-party democracies, Latin America’s media have become increasingly independent, professional and powerful. However, violent attacks against journalists have increased with this new-found power, as corrupt officials, drug traffickers and organised criminals seek to prevent the media from exposing their activities. And although government-sponsored violence is no longer a major threat, authorities are using other methods – including legal, administrative or economic pressure - to muzzle the media’s critical reporting. Journalists in Argentina, Mexico, and Peru, for example, had to contend with a barrage of litigation. Legal provisions adverse to press freedom remain on the books in several Latin American countries, while restrictive bills are under consideration in a number of legislatures. In some countries, including Brazil and Uruguay, politicians were eager to impose legal restrictions on community radio stations. The governments of Nicaragua and Puerto Rico reportedly sought to intimidate newspapers by withholding official advertising. In Bolivia, the Dominican Republic, Haiti, and Mexico, abuses by the police, particularly use of excessive force, were also a cause for concern.

In Argentina, various journalists and media outlets were handed down heavy fines for libel or for causing "moral damage" to the head of state, as President Carlos Menem and his supporters lashed out at the media for its critical reporting on government corruption. The Argentine judiciary used the controversial "right of reply" on several occasions, while the Senate was studying a proposed bill to amend provisions in the penal code, which would make the dissemination of material obtained through the use of hidden microphones or cameras a punishable offence.

Brazilian journalists outside the major cities continued to face threats, harassment, physical attacks - and even death. Four journalists, including one photographer, were killed in 1998. On the legal front, proposed legislation, intended to update the 1967 press law, was said to contain threats to press freedom.

The Chilean media - long shackled by General Pinochet’s military dictatorship - was able to operate without any particular restrictions. Exceptions to the rule were lawsuits brought against two publications and a television station under the State Security Law, which makes defamation, libel or slander of officials, including Supreme Court judges, a criminal offence. Apart from the State Security Law, causes for concern were the continuing existence of Article 25 of the Law on Advertising Abuses, which grants judges discretionary power to ban the dissemination of information, and restrictive provisions contained in the proposed new Criminal Procedures Code.

For the eighth consecutive year, Colombia proved to be the most dangerous country in Latin America to work in as a journalist. Ten journalists were killed - at least four of them for their investigative work. Eight other journalists were kidnapped and later released by guerrillas or paramilitary groups.

Fidel Castro’s Communist regime – approaching its fortieth year in power – continued to clamp down on journalists working for the country’s illegally-operating independent news agencies. Cuban authorities routinely harass, threaten, arrest and imprison independent journalists, often with a goal of "persuading" them to leave the country. Three journalists are serving prison terms, while at least two others, accused of libelling a senior foreign ministry official and showing contempt for the President, respectively, have trials pending. Visiting foreign correspondents are also harassed, threatened or even expelled, while many international journalists were denied visas to cover the historic visit of Pope John Paul II to the island.

In Guatemala, journalists are still the target of harassment, threats, and violent attacks, despite the end of the civil war and the disappearance of the "death squads." One journalist, Antonio Castillo Galvez, an editor for the official television news programme, "Avances", was gunned down by unknown assailants on June 24 as he was leaving his residence in Guatemala City. Apart from the physical violence against journalists, the greatest threat to press freedom is the government’s use of economic pressure to force media out of business, in particular campaigns to pressure advertisers to cancel contracts with critical publications.

At least five journalists were murdered in Mexico, while the number of journalists who were harassed, physically attacked, or received death threats increased. In particular, journalists carrying out investigations into drug trafficking and official corruption, or covering events in the troubled states of Chiapas and Guerrero, were increasingly hindered in their work. Mexico’s Chamber of Deputies passed legislation restricting the ability of journalists to effectively report on events in the lower house, and the Chamber’s Radio and Television Committee was considering a draft bill on media, which, if approved, could harm the constitutionally guaranteed freedoms of expression and of the press.

In Peru, Isabel Chumpitaz Panta, a radio journalist who championed peasant farmers’ rights in a daily programme called "The Peoples’ Voice", was shot to death by unknown assailants, who also killed her husband and wounded her brother.

The continuing persecution of the former owner of the Lima-based television station Canal 2-Frecuencia Latina, Baruch Ivcher, whose Peruvian citizenship was stripped and ownership rights suspended in 1997, sent an implicit warning to critics of the government, while a former investigative journalist for Canal 2, José Arrieta Matos, was forced to seek political asylum in the United States. Throughout the year, journalists were subjected to a systematic campaign of persecution, as President Alberto Fujimori sought to intimidate and control the press in preparation of a bid for a third term in office.

With the exception of the killing of Tara Singh Hayer, publisher and editor of the Indo-Canadian Times, there were no serious infringements on press freedom in either Canada or the United States, although 1998 was a year of controversy for the press in both countries. In the US, the credibility of the media was questioned when a joint CNN/Time report that alleged that US forces had used sarin nerve gas during the Vietnam War had to be retracted. CNN fired two reporters and reprimanded its star correspondent, Peter Arnett. In other incidents, New Republic magazine fired one of its lead writers for fabricating stories and the Boston Globe asked two of its columnists to resign for fabricating or plagiarising material. In Canada, 1998 proved to be a year of major change and upheaval in the newspaper industry, as Conrad Black - who owns more than half of the country’s dailies, as well as the Daily Telegraph in Britain and the Jerusalem Post - launched a new national daily, the National Post.

Finally - in a move that was welcomed by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and others - the Organisation of American States’ Inter American Commission on Human Rights (IACHR) announced on October 6 that it had appointed an Argentinian attorney, Santiago A. Cantón, as Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression. As Rapporteur, Cantón will monitor, promote and protect freedom of expression in the Americas, preparing annual status reports for the IACHR and for the OAS General Assembly. "With hundreds of journalists killed, many more persecuted and the absence of an adequate response to this problem, it is clear that much remains to be done," Cantón said.