62nd
General Assembly
Mexico City, Mexico
September 29 to October 3, 2006
Camino Real Hotel
Reports and Resolutions
|
CHILE
Report to the Midyear Meeting
Quito, Ecuador
The press has
continued to work in complete freedom. However, despite importance advances
in access to government sources, there continue to be difficulties created by
various government institutions to hamper the work of the press.
In August 2005, a constitutional reform was approved that establishes the principles
of probity and government advertising. The new Article 8 of the Constitution
establishes that “acts and resolutions of government institutions are
public, as well as fundamentals and procedures they use.” Furthermore,
it affirms that “only a law approved by majority vote can declare an item
classified or secret” if it complies with certain conditions.
Nonetheless, various government institutions continued issuing resolutions that
declared certain documents or actions as secret or classified, including those
that have been produced after that date. They have resorted to Decree 26 from
2001 from the Ministry of the Secretary General of the Presidency that regulates
the form in which they can create exceptions to advertising that had been established
by the Law of General Basics in State Administration in 1999. Although this
decree was rejected by the General Finance Office of the Republic last year
and despite the new article in the Constitution, old habits and the desire of
public officials to keep their actions hidden from the citizens has led to them
this recourse.
After multiple complaints from the press and public opinion, in January this
year, the Executive branch expressly overturned Decree 26 and it is hoped that
the constitutional article will enter into effect and that the new government
and all national political sectors will comply. The first signs are not too
promising, since the same Senate that approved the constitutional reform has
not put an end to the secret ballot and even censured its president who tried
to put an end to this type of voting.
A new angle to the debate on press freedom began in January when the Superintendent
of Stocks and Securities fined the editor and owner of the financial newspaper,
Estrategia $500,000 dollars. The fine was imposed after investigating the huge
increase in the stock price of a company, which the Superintendent attributed
to information on that company published in Estrategia during those months,
and the fine was applied because the newspaper owner was alao the owner of the
company quoted on the stock market. The Superintendent viewed this as a violation
to Article 61 of the Stock Market Law, which prohibits influencing the market
by spreading false or tendentious information. Consequently, an administrative
fine was issued, which is being appealed, and the case will be resolved in the
courts. Additionally, charges have been filed as stipulated in the Stock Market
Law.
Independently of this incident, this episode can harm the credibility of the
press and result in new regulations, which has occurred in other countries with
more advanced stock markets. Even though they have a worthy goal of safeguarding
shareholders, this could become an obstacle to free information.
 questions
or comments? e-mail us
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
All rights reserved.
. |
