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BOLIVIA
Before the June 30 elections, the National Congress approved changes in the
law that overturned measures in the Electoral Code and the Copnstitutional Reform
Law that limited press freedom.
On April 10, an event occurred that shook the journalistic community. María
Teresa Guzmán de Carrasco, executive editor of El Diario and wife of
Jorge Carrasco Jahnsen, the paper’s editor, was killed when a bomb exploded
in the back of her car as she was going home from the newspaper. Her chauffeur,
Guillermo Zenteno, was injured. Only minutes earlier the journalist had said
goodbye to her husband.
As a result of the investigation, her husband has been detained in a high security
prison in La Paz as the main suspect. He has said he did not commit the crime
and that his wife was murdered in reprisal for articles published in El Diario.
Before the election campaign that brought the new president, Gonzalo Sánchez
de Lozada, to power, Congress approved a law amending the Electoral Code (December
3, 2001) whose Article 119 flagrantly threatened freedoms of the press and of
business.
This article required all media outlets to register in the National Electoral
Court the programs, times and schedules as well as fees that are in effect during
the campaign. These must not be more than the average advertising fees charged
in the first half of the year before the election.
After lobbying by journalism organizations, Congress approved a law on April
30 saying that Article 119 of the Electoral Code would not be in effect for
the June 30 general election.
Article 119 requires that the National Electoral Court publish 15 days after
elections are called a list of media outlets authorized to carry election propaganda,
and says that political parties may not buy propaganda in unauthorized outlets.
It also says that media companies that carry election propaganda without being
authorized by the National Electoral Court may be sanctioned with a fine equal
to double the average fees for the time and space sold. It also sets sanctions
against media outlets that violate the law, such as suspension of political
announcements and propaganda for a period to be determined by the National Electoral
Court.
During the campaign, an effort also was made to overturn the Print Law, which
has been in effect since 1925. The Constituitional Reform Law says in Article
23, “Any person who believes that he has been improperly or illegally
prevented from learning, objecting to or obtaining the elimination or correction
of information reported in any physical electronic, magnetic or computing medium
in public or private files or databases that affect his basic right to personal
or family privacy, honor or reputation recognized in this constitution may issue
a habeas data appeal to the district high court or any other court, at his choice.”
Paragraph II says, “if the appropriate court or judge upholds the appeal,
he will order the disclosure, elimination or correction of the personal information
that was challenged.”
Just as in the case of the changes to the Electoral Code, this article provoked
statements of opposition by journalistic organizations, which said it threatened
the confidentiality of sources.
The pressure caused the legislators to correct the amendment, including in the
Electoral Reform Law a new paragraph, IV, that clearly states, “The habeas
data appeal may not remove secrets with regard to the press.”
The Constitutional Reform Law is now under consideration in Congress, which
will send it to the executive branch to be enacted.
In September, after many years, the Press Court held a hearing to clarify the
libel charge brought by former Government Minister Walter Guiteras Denis against
the editor of the sensationalist newspaper Extra of La Paz following an incident
involving the official and his wife.
After the Press Jury was set up, it had to consider the statute of limitations
for the alleged crime, because the charge was not made within four months of
the challenged article, according to the defendant’s brief.
The court began considering the request, and it was shelved because of the statute
of limitations.
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