Latin American journalist killings, self-censorship concern IAPA
By freedomforum.org staff
07.31.01
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| Danilo Arbilla |
Latin America's ongoing media-freedom problems have been heightened in recent months by the murders of nine journalists and the emergence of a "culture of self-censorship" that is weakening the work of the press, the Miami-based Inter American Press Association has warned.
In a report issued July 27, which assessed the state of press freedom in the Western Hemisphere in the past three months, the executive committee of IAPA declared that its "greatest concern" was the killing of seven journalists in Colombia, one journalist in Mexico and another in Costa Rica since March.
The media-watchdog organization also expressed concern about violence in Haiti, Cuba and the Dominican Republic, along with what it referred to as "innumerable lawsuits being filed against individual journalists and the news media, particularly in Costa Rica and Brazil" and "anti-press legislation and bills" in Paraguay, Chile, Nicaragua and Panama.
IAPA President Danilo Arbilla said the climate of self-censorship that was developing results from violence in rural areas of the countries, like Colombia, Mexico and Brazil, in which journalists were least protected and feared reprisals for writing of corruption or drug trafficking.
The chairman of the IAPA committee on freedom of the press and information, Rafael Molina, said that during a recent visit to Costa Rica, journalists told IAPA that they often didn't publish matters of public interest out of fear that they would be "punished with high damages awards and fines" and other legal action.
"The climate of fear that they seek to create among journalists has an even more serious consequence, in that it deprives citizens of their right to be informed — a cornerstone of the democratic process," IAPA stated.
As to legal issues, IAPA again protested the ruling by Venezuela's supreme court on the concept of "truthful information" and media responsibility for the views they express and for their hiring practices, including the decision that "it is an offense against truthful and impartial information to have a majority of columnists of one single ideological viewpoint."
The free-press organization also protested setbacks to press freedom in Chile, Paraguay and Nicaragua, which passed laws curtailing press activities.
In Chile, rather than eliminating restrictions on the press, the new "Law on Freedom of Opinion and of Information and the Practice of Journalism" in fact set up a new regulatory system, IAPA contends. It also noted that in Paraguay, two laws went into effect that actually create "protective shields" for public officials by banning reporting on their actions and assets. Nicaragua enacted a "Law Establishing the Journalists Colegio" for the obligatory licensing of journalists, while in Panama a bill for similar legislation was introduced in Congress.
IAPA also reported that in Argentina and Guatemala, the media face direct and indirect pressure by the national and state governments. Harassment incidents have also occurred in Brazil, Panama, Nicaragua and Uruguay, where governments or official agencies "used discrimination in the granting of official advertising as a means of pressuring the media."
The organization issued a call for strict compliance with the principles of the IAPA-sponsored Declaration of Chapultepec, which states that "no people or society can be free without freedom of expression and of the press," and that "the exercise of this freedom is not something that authorities grant, it is an inalienable right of the people."
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