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Country-by-Country
Reports
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Summary of Country-by-Country reports
by Ricardo Trotti, Press Freedom Coordinator,
at the IAPA Midyear Meeting
Casa de Campo, Dominican Republic
March 17, 2002
ARGENTINA
The serious economic and political situation in Argentina has also given rise
to attacks, beatings and threats against journalists, especially those involved
in covering the outbursts of social unrest.
A special commission of the national Chamber of Deputies has reported money
laundering in the acquisition of several media outlets.
ARUBA & DUTCH CARIBBEAN
The government passed legislation to ease access by the press to public records.
BOLIVIA
Amendments to the Electoral Code include time limits for the media to publish
political advertising, and a schedule of rates they can charge, which may not
exceed the average commercial rates for the first half of the year prior to
the election.
The eradication of coca crops brought with it arbitrary treatment of journalists
and allowed the government to close a number of radio stations in the region
that had been operating without a license and opposed eradicating the crops.
BRAZIL
A "damages industry" continues to thrive on the basis of court decisions
assessing stiff fines on media outlets and journalists, effectively censoring
information on government officials or administration corruption.
In February the Chamber of Deputies approved the opening of media companies
with up to 30 percent foreign capital. The university degree requirement for
journalists to be included in the professional registry of the Labor Ministry
was suspended in a São Paulo federal court decision effective nationwide.
CANADA
It is feared that new anti-terrorism legislation could be used to put restrictions
on freedom of expression and access to public information.
Under a recent amendment to the Criminal Code, courts may order publication
bans under certain circumstances.
CARIBE
A radio current affairs show host was ordered to leave Antigua, a move that
sparked local protest.
In Grenada, an editor and a radio reporter were sued for libel in two separate
cases.
CHILE
The government has made no headway on amending the Press Act of 2001, which
provides for censorship on the reporting of news.
A Council of State official filed charges against a newspaper for appealing
to an international organization such as the IAPA after criticizing her performance
in an editorial, for which she had also sued the paper.
COLOMBIA
Two journalists were killed in the line of duty, and 17 received death threats
from guerrillas, drug traffickers and paramilitary forces. A number of journalists
have the left the country.
At the request of presidential candidate Horacio Serpa, the government has asked
the OAS to send a commission to monitor reporting on the elections. Serpa had
complained that the media in general do not report fairly and impartially.
COSTA RICA
On the pretext of "political equality," the Supreme Court of Elections
required a television station to include more than a dozen politicians in a
presidential debate, after the station had announced a debate among the four
majority party candidates with the highest standing in the polls.
The Legislative Assembly voted to eliminate the crime of insulting public officials,
which threatened with prison time anyone besmirching a government official's
reputation or good name. But the steady stream of court decisions against journalists
and media outlets, especially in relation to the right of reply, has degenerated
into a culture of self-censorship.
CUBA
Government violence against independent journalists is escalating, and attacks,
threats and denials of permission to leave the country are on the rise. A number
of journalists have been arrested in the wake of the events at the Mexican Embassy
in Havana.
More obstacles are being put in the way of independent journalists sending dispatches
abroad. E-mail and Internet access is not a possibility, since even average
citizens must apply for special permits from the National Office of Technological
Security.
ECUADOR
The Children's and Teenagers' Code has passed the first stage of the congressional
approval process. The Code interferes with the editorial policy of private media
outlets by requiring them to provide space free of charge for information from
the public sector.
The Ecuadorian government has declared a state of emergency in response to the
outbreak of civil war in Colombia, enabling it to close radio stations near
the border.
EL SALVADOR
National and municipal officials are systematically refusing to speak to journalists
or provide them with information of public interest.
Leaders of the main opposition party FMLN have launched a campaign of attacks
on journalists and media outlets, after major newspapers reported on a party
march in support of terrorist Osama bin Laden.
ESTADOS UNIDOS
Wall Street Journal correspondent Daniel Pearl was murdered by his abductors
in Pakistan, sending a shock wave around the world.
Bush administration officials scrapped a plan to create a new office that the
media feared might be used to disseminate disinformation in the war on terrorism.
Meanwhile, a directive from the Attorney General's office was seen as a potential
threat to the free flow of information.
GUATEMALA
A mandatory licensing law was enacted which violates article 35 of the Guatemalan
constitution. Article 35 guarantees the practice of journalism "without
prior permit or licensing requirements."
A draft amendment to the Criminal Code introduces penalties for periodicals,
books and electronic media which publish "obscene content."
HAITI
One journalist has been murdered, and many others attacked and threatened. The
main source of the harassment is the governing Lavalás Family Movement
party.
Faced with government and police apathy in response to complaints filed by journalists,
the National Association of Journalists has begun filing criminal charges against
the assailants.
HONDURAS
A congressman has asked Congress to regulate and control journalists and the
media in retaliation for criticism of the government's performance and for publishing
reports of the United States consulate's denial of visas to major business figures.
MEXICO
A journalist was murdered in a town on the border with the United States. The
presence and influence of drug trafficking groups make journalism is a high-risk
occupation near the border.
No progress has been made in the court proceedings relating to more than 10
murdered journalists, despite the fact that the Inter-American Commission on
Human Rights holds the Mexican government accountable to the international community
for some these crimes, which have been investigated by the IAPA.
NICARAGUA
A mandatory licensing law enacted in April 2001 has not yet entered into effect,
because the two unions required by law to elect an executive committee have
yet to reach agreement.
The new administration has said it will apply a fair, technical policy for the
placement of government advertising, thus distancing it from the previous administration
of Arnoldo Alemán, which used public funds to reward and punish the media.
PANAMA
Despite the government's promises, laws limiting the exercise of freedom of
the press are still on the books. Harassment of journalists continues, and arbitrary
criminal complaints are filed against them for alleged wrongful accusations
of criminal acts.
In a climate of judicial repression, these complaints are used to make it difficult
for journalists to do their work.
PARAGUAY
Freedom of the press has been dealt serious blows by court decisions that impose
fines on media outlets and favor government officials and authorities over journalistic
revelations of corruption.
Serious harassment, threats and attacks on journalists and the media, especially
outside the capital and near the border with Brazil and Argentina where bands
of smugglers operate.
PERU
A heated public debate arose at the prospect of the government rescinding the
licenses of several television stations, whose owners were fugitives from justice
or defendants after taking bribes from Vladimiro Montesinos during the previous
administration.
Issues addressed by bills before Congress include access to public records and
a conscience clause for journalists.
PUERTO RICO
Judges, legislators and government officials continue to issue laws, regulations
and orders barring journalists from accessing information produced by the public
sector or personally concerning government officials.
DOMINICAN REPUBLIC
A press law still before Congress guarantees free access to public records and
establishes that primary legal liability for publication does not rest with
the media outlet.
Impunity still surrounds the 1994 disappearance of Narciso González.
URUGUAY
Journalists ordered to reveal their sources have been arrested and required
to appear in court in the wake of revelations of government corruption.
The government continues to place official advertising without reference to
technical criteria.
VENEZUELA
President Hugo Chávez is the prime mover of a systematic campaign of
attacks on journalists and the media, using his long speeches on national networks
to implicate government and private broadcast media and incite the members of
the Bolivarian Circles to attack journalists.
In addition to the "truth in reporting" clause in the Venezuelan constitution
and court decisions that favor president Chávez over freedom of the press,
pro-government lawmakers are sponsoring a Content Law that seeks to create a
mechanism for media control and censorship on the pretext of protecting child-friendly
viewing time.
 questions
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Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
All rights reserved.
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