MIAMI, Florida (Jan. 19, 2001)-The murder of journalists in Colombia, Haiti and Paraguay, ongoing harassment of independent reporters and foreign correspondents by officials in Cuba and Venezuela, discrimination in the placement of official advertising to the detriment of media in Argentina, Brazil and Uruguay, legal action against the press in Canada and individual journalists in Chile, and the enactment of laws curtailing press activity in Brazil, Nicaragua and Paraguay are among the main problems facing the press in the Western Hemisphere, according to a review by the Inter American Press Association (IAPA).
The IAPAs Executive Committee drew this picture of the state of press freedom in the past quarter - since the Associations General Assembly in Santiago, Chile, last October - at its meeting here today.
The hemisphere organizations governing body expressed optimism for the restoration of the rule of law and full press freedom in Peru and repudiation of a campaign of harassment of local independent reporters and foreign correspondents in Cuba - where they are subject to Law 88, known as the gag law, which makes reporting without official permission a criminal offense punishable by up to 20 years imprisonment. The IAPA renewed its call on the Cuban government to free jailed journalists Bernardo Arévalo Padrón and Manuel Antonio González and welcomed the release on Wednesday of Joel de Jesús Díaz on completing two years of his four-year prison term.
The IAPA offered its solidarity with news media and individual journalists who have become victims of violence in Colombia, where three newsmen were murdered in as many months and several others were forced to leave the country in fear of their lives. It also expressed sympathy for the families of a journalist murdered in Haiti and another in Paraguay.
Responding to new developments in Peru, where a warrant was issued for the arrest of Eduardo Calmell del Solar, editor of the Lima daily newspaper Expreso, the IAPA Executive Committee said it was seeking further information and closely monitoring the situation to ensure the observance of due process.
The hemisphere organization also looked at numerous legislative bills and newly-enacted laws that curtail or threaten press freedom, such as what it sees as a regressive law for the licensing of journalists passed by the Nicaraguan Congress and legislation in Paraguay shielding public officials by prohibiting the media from reporting on or investigating their financial assets.
After reviewing country-by-country reports from around the Americas - the main points of which are summarized below - the IAPA officers declared that the organization would move ahead with its battle to do away with the impunity surrounding many crimes against journalists, their murder and violence unleashed against them, attacks on and unequal treatment of the news media, and any laws or regulations stifling the publics right to receive information and the fundamental human right of freedom of expression.
Political pressure and attacks on the daily El Liberal by the Santiago del Estero provincial government continue. These include discrimination in the placement of official advertising and a barrage of legal actions filed by the womens branch of the ruling party.
A proposal by a group of legislators to institute a right of reply has raised concern.
Brazil:
In reprisal for what it has been reporting, the afternoon newspaper Tarde de Bahia continues to be discriminated against in the placement of official advertising by the Bahia state government.
A bill before Congress, introduced at the urging of the IAPA, would transfer cases of crimes against journalists to federal jurisdiction, to make it more likely they will be solved and the guilty brought to trial.
A ban on cigarette advertising in news media was enacted in late December.
Canada:
A Toronto court ruled in favor of the police in November, saying they had acted lawfully in confiscating, for use as evidence, photographs and videotapes taken by a news agency during a protest demonstration. Press groups protested the ruling, calling it a "dangerous precedent" that could turn reporters into "police auxiliaries."
Chile:
Regulations on insult, which restrict press freedom, remain on the books in the State Security Law the criminal and military justice codes. Under terms of the insult laws, a warrant was issued for the arrest of journalist Alejandra Matus, author of "The Black Book of Chilean Justice."
Colombia:
The spiral of violence goes on. Three journalists were murdered, a number of other kidnapped and others left the country. Those killed were Alfredo Abad López (in December) and Guillermo León Agudelo (in November), director and commentator, respectively, of the La Voz de la Selva radio station in Florencia, Caquetá province, and Gustavo Ruiz Cantillo (in November), correspondent of Radio Galeón in Pivijaí, El Magdalena province.
Cuba:
The government continues with its policy of harassment of independent journalists and foreign correspondents. The new tactic is for the state security apparatus to arrest dissident journalists and take them to a remote spot 50 to 100 miles from their home and abandon them there. This happened to María Elena Alpízar from the news agency Servicio Noticuba and to Víctor Rolando Arroyo.
The police have been particularly aggressive towards young reporters Jadir and Jesús Hernández and Santiago Dubuchet of Havana Press, arresting them on several occasions, and Antonio Femenías of the Patria agency in Ciego de Avila.
Also arrested were Ramón Humberto Colas Castillo of Cuba Press and Omar Rodríguez Saludes of the Nueva Prensa agency. In January, Pascal Fletcher, a correspondent of the English daily Financial Times and a stringer for Reuters, was accused of publishing tendentious information about the government and being in the service of the United States Special Interests Section in Havana.
Haiti:
Sports reporter Gerard Denoze of Radio Plus in Port-au-Prince was murdered on December 15. The program director and co-owner of Radio Kiskeya, Liliane Pierre-Paul, radio reporters and the editor of the daily newspaper Le Nouvelliste, Max Chauvet, reported in January that they had received threats from political leaders.
Nicaragua:
The Legislative Assembly on December 13 passed a law providing for the licensing of journalists by making it obligatory for them to belong to a newly-instituted journalists colegio. The IAPA called on President Arnoldo Alemán to use his veto power and overturn the law.
Paraguay:
Congress in December passed a bill regulating information of a private nature that local news media said if endorsed by the executive branch and enacted would halt investigation into pubic officials assets.
Reporter Salvador Medina of the Ñemity community radio in Capiibary, San Pedro province, was murdered on January 5, 2001, after exposing trafficking in lumber. Mauri Konig, a Brazilian reporter for the daily O Estado do Paraná, was beaten up in mid-December in an inland town in reprisal for his investigation into unlawful recruitment into the Paraguayan Army and National Police of young Brazilian men.
Peru:
The restoration of democracy in Peru gave rise to optimism and was welcomed by the IAPA, which since 1997 had been closely monitoring the plight of the press there, sending a number of missions to the country. It was concerned at attacks on individual journalists and news media outlets, among them the metropolitan dailies El Comercio and La República, as well as the unlawful stripping of media entrepreneur Baruch Ivchers Peruvian citizenship and television holdings.
Ivcher recovered his Peruvian citizenship and his Canal 2 TV in December, while Genaro Delgado Parker took back the running of Radio 1160 and Canal 13.
Uruguay:
Argentine news photographer Fernando Arias has wound up in court in Uruguay after being beaten up by a famous sports star when he tried to photograph him in a public place. A judge found the photographers action to be a provocation, as in the restaurant where the incident occurred no photography was allowed. The IAPA protested the ruling, saying the quest for information could not be a provocation and what the owner of a restaurant said could not be above the right to receive and impart news.
The managing editor of the news weekly Búsqueda, Claudio Paolillo, was accused of criminal defamation and libel by the editor of La República, Federico Fassano, who called for a sentence of three years imprisonment, but later dropped the charges after two court hearings, according to the annual report of the Uruguayan Press Association.
The distribution of official advertising continues to be based on non-technical criteria, thus enabling its manipulation of certain media.
Venezuela:
President Hugo Chávez continued voicing attacks on publishers and local and foreign media, in January accusing them of being involved in a news conspiracy to "hide the truth from the people."
Attorney Pablo Aure Sánchez was arrested in January over the contents of a letter published in El Nacional which according to officials was offensive to the Armed Forces.
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