Among the main restrictions of press freedom, although expressed in ways varying
from country to country, the following characteristics were noted:
a) Murders, attacks and threats against the physical safety of journalists and
their sources are still the main problem in the hemisphere.
In Colombia violence by irregular groups caused the deaths of five journalists,
two because of their work and the other three for unknown motives. Nine journalists
were kidnapped, 69 were threatened and three left the country because they feared
for their lives. In addition four media outlets were bombed.
In Haiti, threats forced four journalists to leave the country and the closure
of a radio station.
In addition to these acts of violence there were physical attacks on journalists
by mobs connected to governments or parties during demonstrations, protests
and political meetings. Incidents of this type occurred in Venezuela, Cuba,
Bolivia, El Salvador and Haiti.
b) The most dramatic example of the detention and arrests of journalists is
in Cuba. Official repression of independent journalism culminated recently with
the detention of about 20 journalists, in addition to those who had been sentenced
earlier or are awaiting trial.
Journalists also were detained for brief periods in the Dominican Republic and
Mexico.
c) Verbal violence by politicians in power sometimes goes beyond moral condemnation
and insult to become an instigation to lynch journalists and attack media outlets.
The most disturbing incidents of this type occurred in Cuba and Venezuela. In
Cuba, the government called independent journalists “a mercenary force”
and compared them to the groups that participated in the Bay of Pigs. With this
heated rhetoric, citizens instigated by the government hold “repudiation
meetings” in front of independent journalists’ homes.
In Venezuela, President Hugo Chávez declared that 2003 would be the year
of the “media battle” and called representatives of important media
companies the “horsemen of the Apocalypse.” In an effort to inflame
public opinion, the foreign minister accused the press of planning the president’s
assassination. The effect of this official language can be seen in the reaction
of the Bolivarian Circles which attack journalists, destroy their equipment
and burn their vehicles. The situation has reached the point where journalists
carry flak jackets as part of their basic equipment.
High Guatemalan officials have also harshly attacked the press.
Verbal attacks against the press are also frequent in Bolivia and the Dominican
Republic, although they are not as intense as in Cuba and Venezuela.
d) Judicial harassment in support of obsolete and restrictive laws is also a
cause for concern.
In Brazil, intervention by the courts encouraged several cases of prior censorship.
In Cuba and Venezuela, the courts are used for repression. In Cuba, independent
journalists face the threat of sentences of up to 20 years in prison and their
publications are summarily censored and confiscated. This happed to the magazine
De Cuba on March 18.
There is also judicial harassment in Argentina, Costa Rica, El Salvador, Jamaica,
Mexico, the Dominican Republic and Uruguay.
e) In some countries, bills and new laws would restrict press freedom rather
than broadening it.
The threat of new laws restricting press freedom has appeared in Venezuela,
Chile, Brazil and Colombia. There is also cause for concern in the United States
where new measures implemented in connection with the war against terrorism
restrict access to news sources.
f) Government economic and tax pressures were particularly harsh in Venezuela
where currency exchange regulations threaten the importation of supplies for
media companies.
There are also pressures of this type in Guatemala, where Treasury officials
harass the media with continuous audits and in Nicaragua where tax breaks that
media companies count on were challenged.
In Uruguay there is an important debate about the policies for placement of
government advertising.
g) Despite the advisory opinion of the Inter-American Court on Human Rights,
that settled the debate about obligatory licensing of journalists in 1986, the
problem persists in several countries.
There is obligatory licensing in Venezuela, Ecuador, Honduras, Nicaragua and
other countries. In Nicaragua, the constitutionality of the licensing law is
being appealed. In Panama the executive branch declined to approve a law that
would have required licensing.
h) In the face of violations of press freedom, there is hope that the action
of institutions of the inter-American human rights system, especially the Inter-American
Human Rights Court, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights and its Special
Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression will bring about general improvement.
The Inter-American Human Rights Court handed down temporary measures to safeguard
press freedom in Venezuela. The Venezuelan government has not complied with
these measures, but they provide strong support to independent journalism in
that country.
With respect to Costa Rica, there was better compliance with the court’s
temporary measures to protect the rights of journalist Mauricio Herrera and
the daily La Nación. In addition, the court soon will begin to study
the Herrera case to issue a decision that could establish press freedom guidelines
that are valid for the entire hemisphere.