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PUERTO
RICO The Legal Committee of the Puerto Rican Senate announced in December 2005 the introduction of Senate Bill 1019 for “Law on the Protection of News Sources in the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico.” On January 10, 2006, the committee began public hearings on the bill. That day, the Puerto Rican Journalists Association and its president, Oscar Serrano, a reporter for Primera Hora, stated the organization’s support for the bill but recommended several amendments. El Nuevo Día declined an invitation to participate in the hearings. However, publisher Luis A. Ferré Rangel sent a letter to the committee acknowledging that “the bill provides greater protection for journalists in reporting the news.” Meanwhile, El Vocero stated in a letter from its publisher, Gaspar Roca, that it supported the bill and found that it to be appropriate. The Center for Press Freedom (CLP) is following the bill, although it did not participate in the initial public hearings by unanimous decision of its Advisory Board and co-chairmen. On December 15, 2005, Puerto Rican Justice Secretary Roberto J. Sanchez Ramos, after a nearly year-long investigation into the arrest of photographer Xavier Araujo of El Nuevo Día while reporting on the kidnapping of a woman from a shopping mall in San Juan in December 2004, did not file charges against the police officers involved in the assault and arrest. Araujo was identified as the instigator of the arrest, since according to the department’s investigation he crossed a police barrier. According to Araujo, there was no such barrier. Araujo and El Nuevo Día filed appeals with a court in Bayamon to contest the decision, prevent the statute of limitations from taking effect, claim damages, and protect the rights guaranteed under freedom of the press. On Friday, February 10, 2006, 10 journalists covering a raid by the FBI of the apartment of a pro-independence and civil rights activist were punched, shoved, and doused with pepper spray by FBI agents. Two of the reporters, Normando Valentin of Radio Isla and Joel Lagos of Radio Puerto Rico had to go to a nearby emergency room for treatment. The other three, André Kang, a photographer for Primera Hora; Annette Alvarez, a reporter for TUTV, a government-run station; and Univisión cameraman Victor Fernandez, were helped by paramedics at the scene. The journalists were assaulted while they were going through a narrow hallway after passing the main entrance of the building located in Rio Piedras, when FBI agents had already finished loading their vehicles with the seized items. Five of the journalists that were attacked filed lawsuits with the Department of Justice of Puerto Rico. On October 15, stemming from a defamation lawsuit that businessman Adolfo Krans, ex-husband of former Governor Sila M. Calderón, filed against puppeteer Antulio “Kobbo” Santarrosa, who accused him of having an adulterous affair while he was married to Mrs. Calderon, the defendant has asked that allegations that Krans suffered financial losses from the accusations be dropped from the charges. Santarrosa’s program, “La Comay,” is the most watched program in Puerto Rico. The lawsuit in the amount of $5.5 million was filed in August 2002. On November 8, the religious organization “Concilio Fuente de Agua Viva” released a sworn statement denying involvement in certain deals with a real estate development company owned by church founder Rodolfo Font. After a week of silence following an investigative report published by El Nuevo Día on these deals, the organization demanded that the paper stop running stories about it. The November 8 edition, which ran the sworn statement, also included a list of questions that the paper had tried to ask Reverend Rodolfo Font but he had not answered. On November 10, a news team from Telemundo complained about being threatened following the release of the investigative reports in El Nuevo Día and on Telemundo. On February 9, ASPPRO, OPC, the Association of Photographers, and the Center for Press Freedom held a meeting, open to all journalists, with Police Chief Pedro Toledo to discuss the confrontations and attacks on reporters and photographers by police officers while covering news events. On February 16, the newspaper Primera Hora was sued for libel for reporting that Rafael Yamil and Miriam Ronda had physically abused their youngest son. They are suing for $300,000 in damages.
Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association. All rights reserved. . |
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