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PANAMA
The most important events concerning press freedom in the last six months are
the following.
The government has not kept its promises to revoke laws that restrict press
freedom. The commissions named by Winston Spadafora, at that time government
and justice minister, became ineffective, partly because of its membership,
and above all because of an unwillingness to achieve concrete results. The former
minister is now a justice of the Supreme Court and he is under investigation
in a scandal involving alleged bribes to certain legislators whose votes were
needed for the Legislative Assembly to confirm his nomination.
On January 22, Law 6 on regulations for free access to public information was
enacted. It was celebrated as a great triumph for Panamanian journalism. Lorenzo
Abrego, a reporter of La Prensa, formally asked the national budget office for
an up-to-date list of all the cars imported exempt from taxes owned by legislators,
specifying the brand, model, year, CIF price and amount of exemption. After
the time period of 30 calendar days provided for by the law, the journalist
asked why he had not received an answer. The budget office said it could not
provide it because the law's enabling regulations had not been implemented.
This is making a mockery of the law, the assembly that passed it, the president
who approved it and all the journalists and citizens of the country, since a
law's enabling regulations only have to be enacted when the law itself requires
it, which is not the case with this law. The journalist will file a habeas data
appeal so a judge can decide the validity of the reasons that prevent the law
of openness in public information from working.
Judicial harassment continues of journalists, who are arbitrarily accused of
alleged libel. The cases rarely are decided but serve as a pretext for constant
summonses to give statements, then to amplify them, then for confrontation hearings,
in general making their normal journalistic work more difficult.
The U.S. State Department's annual report on human rights in Panama criticized
the justice system in general terms as corrupt, inefficient and subject to political
manipulation. It was especially critical of the government's attitude toward
journalists, because, "the Government and public figures make frequent
use of libel and disrespect for authority laws to confront and attempt to intimidate
journalists."
Marcos Castillo, the new president of the National Journalists Colegio, proposed
in his inauguration speech the establishment of a national committee to abolish
laws that restrict press freedom, to eliminate so-called contempt laws and decriminalize
libel.
At the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, three journalists reported
that of 200 people working in the field in Panama, 90 have been named in criminal
complaints of libel. In more than a third of the cases, the complainant is a
public servant or influential public figure. "There is a policy of persecution
and judicial repression against the media and critical journalists," they
concluded.
Sadly, this is the panorama of freedom of expression and the right to information
in Panama.
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Copyright © 2003 Inter American Press Association.
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