URUGUAY
Report to the Midyear Meeting
Quito, Ecuador


Press freedom in general was maintained in a relatively robust fashion during this period, although a series of negative incidents—one of them very serious---cast a shadow of uncertainty as to whether this right is indeed in force in Uruguay, since the media and journalists exercise their profession in an atmosphere of direct attacks and “suggestions” from the government, along with presidential denials of verified facts and continuous complaints about press coverage.

A journalist was kidnapped and tortured by unknown assailants who have not been identified and punished; three journalists received death threats in the exercise of their profession; three other reporters were brought to court on libel charges for published opinions or news reports. In Uruguay, libel is a criminal offense that can lead to prison, according to present law. Bothered by the fact that certain journalists had not towed the official line, two cabinet ministers in President Tabaré Vásquez´s government and the director of one of the state tax-collector´s offices threatened and attacked the media and journalists, sowing suspicions about their integrity; a radio program was taken off the air as a result of “pressures” on the station owners.

The Minister of Education and Culture, Jorge Brovetto, admitted in February before a congressional commission that Uruguay “is not part of Telesur,” the multi-state enterprise promoted and financed by Venzuelan President Hugo Chávez. However, on March 10, a while before President Vásquez paid an official visit to Chávez, the executive branch sent parliament a draft law for Uruguay´s admittance in Telesur as a stockholder and full member.

In a similar fashion, governmental concessions of permits to use television services stirred intense controversy tainted by a crossfire of accusations charging lack of “transparency,” and allocation of government advertising once again became a source of concern, both for advertisers and in terms of justice.

The most serious case occurred between the night of October 17 and the dawn of October 18, when journalist Marcelo Borrat was kidnapped by three hooded men who tortured him at gunpoint, repeatedly threatening the journalist with death and forcing him to throw himself into the sea. The delinquents demanded that Borrat get rid of some tapes in his possession, although they did not specify which ones. The journalist, who filed a report of the attack with police and court authorities, declared that the tapes that his kidnappers wanted to disappear could be two. Some were videos that were broadcast by the television station where he worked, obtained through the method of a “hidden camera,” denouncing a mafia of “traffickers” of affiliations to private hospitals. Others were some audiotapes that prove that businessman Federico Fassano, owner of the newspaper La República, radio AM Libre and the subscription television channel TV Libre, was responsible for the censorship of a program that the reporter hosted on the radio station. After the censorship incident, Fasano fired the journalist, who also worked for TV Libre, where he had broadcast his revelations about the mafia of “traffickers.” The case is still open and unresolved.

Two other journalists received death threats. Diego Muñoz, a reporter working on the program “Deporte Total” (Complete Sports), received a death threat from soccer manager Nelson Gutiérrez and filed a complaint with the court system. With the case in court, Gutiérrez, who controls the television rights and advertising for Uruguayan soccer, acknowledged the existence of the telephone calls and affirmed that they had been made in the context of “annoyance” and “anger,” but denied that his intention was physical harm to Muñoz. The journalist accepted this explanation as an “apology,” and the judge dismissed the case. Jorge Bonica, editor of the weekly El Bocón and the radio program “Francamente hablando” (Frankly Speaking), presented to the courts a tape of Senator Francisco Gallini (from the opposition National Party), in which he was heard saying to one of the journalist´s collaborators, “Tell him to watch himself because I´m going to blast a bullet through his brains.” The acting judge, Carlos García, plans to call both sides to court soon.

In addition, journalists Marcelo Gallardo, of the newspaper Correo of Punta del Este (40 kilometers from Montevideo), and Roberto Tatto and Gonzalo Bazlarrica, of the FM radio program “Hablando Claro” in Río de Nueva Palmira (273 kilometers northeast of Montevideo), were accused in separate courts of having committed the crimes of libel and slander----punishable with prison, according to Uruguayan law----for having transcribed declarations of a third party in the first case and of having interviewed the governor of the Colonia department in the case of the radio reporters. The acting judges found the case lacked sufficient merit to bring the journalists to trial and absolved them of any wrongdoing.

Two cabinet ministers launched attacks against the media and journalists who did not limit themselves to transcribing official communiqués in a cascade that now has gathered several adherents in administration ranks. This time, Interior Minister José Díaz publicly declared that “media power” in Uruguay is “stronger than in other democratic powers.” Later, he delegitimized the role of the press with the argument that “no one elected the media,” unlike government officials who must pass the test of the voters. The minister received criticism from the media and independent and opposition journalists. The only media that came to the defense of the minister was the pro-government newspaper La República. In December, Minister of Public Health María Julia Muñoz, who is very close to President Vásquez, said that she knew of a group of journalists, whom she dubbed “the axis of evil,” who met weekly to conspire against the government. The minister never identified the alleged plotters, although she clearly declared, “We know of the existence of these gatherings.” The press called into question the minister´s assertions. Congressman Javier García (National Party, opposition) asked some questions that were never answered: “Are the intelligence agencies following the activities of some journalists? How did the government obtain these details?”

The president of the state Banco de Previsión Social (Social Security Bank), Ernesto Murro, launched veiled threats against journalists who disagreed with decisions adopted during his administration. Murro attributed hidden “intentions” to those who criticized him from the pages of newspapers, but, enigmatically, announced, “We are now going to discover those intentions.” The weekly Búsqueda warned in an editorial that “these kinds of threats from the seat of power against the press and against journalists” do not have any place “in a democracy” and called attention to the fact that “lamentably, in this respect, we see that the system has been showing some weaknesses.”

In January, the radio program “Doble Vía” (Two-Way Street), broadcast on Radio Centro of Cardona (182 kilometers northeast of Montevideo), was taken off the air after the station owner claimed to its hosts, journalists Dostin Armand Pilón and Rubén Cabrera, that she had received “pressure” that led her to make this decision. In February 2005, Armand Pilón´s home was raided by police with a search warrant issued by the zone´s civil judge, Ulises García, seeking to locate a radio tape of a program in which he had denounced grave cases of child prostitution, alcoholism and drug use in a locality near José Enrique Rodó. The station owner told the journalists that the search episode was one of the “problems” that led her to the decision to take the program off the air.

In the second week of March, during an official visit to Caracas, Presidente Vázquez, seated with President homólogo Hugo Chávez, appeared to make fun of the press in response to a question from a Uruguayan newspaper El Observador journalist about the possibility ot Uruguay´s signing the Free Trade Agreement with the United States, Vázquez surprisingly dismissed any possibility of this happening, and in a mocking tone attributed “versions” of that nature to press “distortions,” asserting that the press invented for the government plans it didn´t have. Nevertheless, in the last few months, Vázquez himself and at least four members of his cabinet, including Minister of Finance, Danilo Astori, discussed the treaty in public and mentioned the possibility of signing it.

In terms of reasons for optimism, it is worth pointing out Oscar Peri Valdez´s permanent resignation from the position of court prosecutor and Attorney General, two years after he was separated from the post because of “abuse of power” and “human rights violations,” and three years after he distributed to all prosecutors a letter of instruction for regressive approaches in terms of freedom of expression and freedom of press. Moreover, in February, in a surprise turn of events, the Minister of Education and Culture, Jorge Brovelto, told a congressional commission that Uruguay would “not make up part of Telesur,” the multi-state venture promoted and financed by Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez.

Also, the courts continue applying advanced legal theory to judge cases in which freedom of expression is at stake, after a relatively short period of court hostility toward press activity and journalists that ended a year ago already.

A coalition of non-governmental and union organizations presented a bill for “access to information, recourse for the right to information and recourse of habeas data against the State.” The bill establishes that all the organisms of public administration, both federal and departmental, private entities to which “the exploitation of a public good or service” has been awarded and those who “receive subsidies, funds or support for any concept” from the government, “must provide for the adequate organization, systematization and availability of the information in its power, assuring complete and easy access for interested parties.” The bill has not yet been considered by the Congress.

The Association of the Uruguayan Press (APU) demanded that the legislative power do away with the crimes of “contempt,” “attempt against the honor of a foreign head of state,” “slander” and “libel”¬¬¬¬¬¬---all of which are punishable by jail sentences---as well as to sanction laws concerning access to public information. The union organizations said that these changes are “an imperative of the State to align its domestic legislation with the American Convention on Human Rights” that the country ratified in 1985.

In November, the weekly Búsqueda reported that the Ninth Instance Criminal Court judge Gabriela Merialdo asked the Minister of Public Health María Julia Muñoz, to begin administrative investigations concerning the distribution of government advertising during prior administrations of this secretary of state and to send her the reports later. Four months after the request, the judge has not received any information from the Minister of Public Health.

In December, the Uruguayan Association of Publicity Agencies (AUDAP) gave ministers and administrators of public enterprises a proposal for “so-called state agencies” to carry out the processes of contracting agencies for state publicity campaigns with more transparency and fairness.

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Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association. All rights reserved.

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58th IAPA General Assembly
JW Marriott Hotel & Stellaris Casino
Lima, Peru
October 26-29, 2002