OAS » IACHR » Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression » 5 - Chapter IV - Evaluation of the Situation of Freedom of Expression in the Hemisphere (continued)

Freedom of Expression

5 - Chapter IV - Evaluation of the Situation of Freedom of Expression in the Hemisphere (continued)

b.         Colombia

 

1.                  Based on information received from different human rights and freedom of expression organizations, the Special Rapporteur found that violence against Colombian journalists had not stopped. The situation in Colombia is different from that of the rest of the member States because of its internal armed conflict. Many of the attacks and assaults on the press are carried out by armed dissident groups. It is the responsibility of the Colombian state “to prevent and investigate such occurrences, to punish the perpetrators, and to ensure that victims receive due compensation,” as established in Principle 9 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression. The Special Rapporteur reiterates that violence against journalists, whether by means of assassinations, kidnappings, assaults or other types of threats, constitutes a violation of international and humanitarian law by the armed dissident groups and by the Colombian Government. [1]

 

2.                  In early 2000, María Alejandra González Mosquera, a journalist for the radio station Super de Popayán and a member of the NGO Fundación para la Comunicación Popular, fled the country after receiving threats from an armed dissident group.[2] Also, at the beginning of 2000, journalists Francisco Santos Calderón, editor of the daily newspaper El Tiempo; Ignacio Gomez, editor of the daily newspaper El Espectador; and Claudia Gurisatti, a television presenter, left the country after receiving death threats.[3]

 

3.                  On January 22, 2000, journalist Guillermo Cortés, Editorial Director of Hora Cero, a televised news program broadcast by Channel A in Bogotá, was kidnapped by six armed men from his estate in Bogotá. He was released on August 13. [4]

 

4.                  On February 14, 2000, two press vehicles belonging to RCN and Radio Caracol, were attacked by armed dissident groups. The attackers burned the vehicles and endangered the lives of the journalists, to express their dissatisfaction with the fact that, according to them, the press was controlled by the government and the army.[5]

 

5.                  On March 6, 2000, television announcer Fernando González Pacheco reported that he had received threats on his life and would have to leave the country.[6]

 

6.                  On April 10, 2000, two journalists were wounded in an explosion while they were covering an “armed strike” by some armed dissident groups in Cajibio, in the Cauca department. Carlos Andrés Gómez, a reporter for the news broadcast 90 Minutos and correspondent for TV Informativo 11 P.M., was wounded in his right leg and cameraman Genaro Muñoz, from Pentavisión and correspondent for Noticiero de las 7, was wounded in the knee.[7]

 

7.                  On April 13, 2000, the editorial room of the magazine Alternativa in Bogotá was broken into.  The intruders locked two employees who happened to be at the office in a bathroom and took away documents, diskettes and other information belonging to the magazine. It is assumed that the motive of the attack was to prevent the publication of an article on an alleged conspiracy by some armed dissident groups to seize power in Colombia.[8]

 

8.                  On May 8, 2000, a group of eight journalists was attacked by gunmen on the Cimtarra river, between the departments of Bolívar and Santander, while they were traveling by boat. Although the journalists showed their press equipment and a white flag, the attackers did not hold their fire. The journalists were: Rafael Poveda from Caracol TV; Oscar Obregoso, Caracol TV cameraman; Germán Espejo, John Ripe, and Mauricio Anzola, Caracol TV technicians; Andrés Gil from RCN TV; Fernando Giraldo, cameraman from RCN TV; and Harold Joya, sound engineer from RCN TV.  No one was wounded.[9]

 

9.                  On May 25, 2000, Jineth Bedoya, journalist with Bogotá’s El Espectador, was kidnapped and brutally attacked, allegedly by armed dissident groups. The kidnapping occurred in broad daylight, opposite a prison just outside Bogotá. She was released 10 hours later. It is believed that the motive for the kidnapping was the coverage by El Espectador of a conflict in the same prison, involving prisoners who were members of paramilitary groups.

 

10.              On June 14, 2000, Eduardo Pilonieta, attorney and contributor to the daily newspaper Vanguardia Liberal in Bucaramanga, was wounded by two unidentified persons on a motorcycle. The journalist was shot three times. In December 2000, the Bucaramanga District Attorney’s Office prosecuted the perpetrators of the attack. [10]

 

11.              On June 20, 2000, more than 50 members of armed dissident groups intercepted a van delivering the daily newspaper El Tiempo in Bogotá, between Caracolicito and Alto del Bálsamo.  The attackers held up the occupants of the van, seized the 3,000 copies of the newspaper and burned them in the street. This attack was not the first one reported against El Tiempo. On April 4, other armed dissidents had stolen 3,000 copies of El Tiempo in Aracataca and thousands more in the vicinity of Caperrucho.[11]

 

12.              On August 16, 2000, investigators from the technical investigation team of the Public Prosecutor’s Office in Colombia raided the premises of RCN TV. The operation was intended to seize some footage aired in the news on June 15, 2000, showing an interview with a member of an armed dissident group. RCN TV expressed its concern that such an operation by the courts could result in the removal of material from their archives in violation of source confidentiality and professional secrecy. The confidentiality of information sources is protected in Principle 8 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression.

 

13.              On October 5, 2000, journalist Andrés Gil Gómez, cameraman Gustavo González of RCN TV and the their driver, Pedro Manuel Pinto, were kidnapped by an armed dissident group on their way from Medellín to Bogotá. On October 6, armed dissidents kidnapped journalist Jaime Horacio Arango of the daily newspaper El Colombiano and a photographer for the same daily newspaper Jesús Abad Colorado. In both cases, the men were released hours later on the condition that press releases addressed to the government or the public were delivered or read.

 

14.              On November 2, 2000, Carlos Armando Uribe and Jorge Otálora were kidnapped in El Olimpo, Tolima department, by a group of armed dissidents. Uribe, an agronomist, makes ecological programs for television and radio and is also a Sunday columnist for the newspaper La Tarde de Pereira. Otálora produces Uribe’s television program, Las aventuras del profesor Yarumo. Uribe was released on November 9, but Otálora is still being held.[12]

 

15.              On November 4, 2000, District Attorney Frontino Milton Javier Rodríguez Moreno, from the Antioquía region, was kidnapped by an armed dissident group. Rodríguez is known for his role in defending freedom of the press and expression in Colombia. Three other local officials had been kidnapped by armed groups the day before: Dr. Dora Helena Muñoz Perez, Amalfi Circuit Judge (Juez Promiscuo del Circuito de Amalfi); Dr. Jorge Humberto Betancur Echeverri, Amalfi District Attorney; and Jairo Manuel Carvajal Perez, Secretary of the Amallfi District Attorney’s Office.   

 

16.              On December 6, 2000, a number of reporters, cameramen and photographers were taken hostage by armed dissident groups in the Antioquía department. The following individuals were kidnapped: Oscar Montoya, Oscar Alvarez and Alexander Cardona from Caracol Televisión; Fernando Tabares, Sergio Goez and Pedro Pinto from RCN Televisión; Yolanda Bedoya, Luis Fernando Marín and Gildardo Alvarez, from CM&; Diego Argáez from Channel A; Luis Benavides from El Espectador; and Miguel Jaramillo and his technical team from El Noticiero de las 7. The journalists were trying to reach Granada, on the eastern side of the department to cover a raid by the ninth front of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC).  They were released 18 hours after their kidnapping. [13]

 

 

c.         Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela

 

17.              During the year 2000, President Hugo Chavez expressed himself in ways that could be considered threatening to communications media and journalists. The Head of State’s attitude could contribute to the creation of an atmosphere of intimidation toward the press, which is not conducive to public debate and the exchange of opinions and ideas, necessary for a democratic society.

 

18.              Unrestricted public debate of ideas and opinions is fundamental for the strengthening of democracy.  The debate is enriched even further when public officials actively participate in it, allowing members of society to know the ideas and opinions of their leaders. 

 

19.              However, the Office of the Special Rapporteur considers that in some circumstances, the expressions of public officials can contribute to the creation of an environment that is counterproductive for the exercise of freedom of expression. Hostile and insulting expressions against social communicators in a repeated and sustained form can, in time, have a chilling effect on journalists and communications media, which can lead to self-censorship.

 

20.              President Chavez hosts a weekly radio show called Aló Presidente, lasting for four to six hours, in which he has expressed himself in an intimidating manner against social communicators and communications media.  The expressions of President Chavez, coming from the position of authority that he occupies, could have an intimidating effect on the press and on society.

 

21.              Additionally, the President of the Republic’s expressions carry with them the extra burden of being considered a model for public officials to follow.  Lesser public officials may consider it acceptable to refer to communications media and journalists in the same way that the President does. Furthermore, public officials, in particular in the country’s interior, are generally less subject to citizen control, due to the fact that their expressions are not limited by the criticism of the national mass media, as is the case with the President of the Republic. In this manner, a climate that is hostile to the press can be constructed, which facilitates criticism and attacks against the press and leads to self-censorship.

 

22.              The Special Rapporteur trusts that the President of the Republic and other public officials will moderate their expressions against communications media and journalists, to avoid creating a climate of intimidation and hostility against them that will prejudice the exercise of freedom of expression.     

 

23.              On October 20, 2000, the president broadcast a speech on television and radio insulting Dr. Andrés Mata Osorio, editor of El Universal, as well as the international press.  Among other things, he called journalist Mata Osorio “caudillo,” “tyrant,” “corrupt,” “scoundrel” and “enemy of the rule of law and enemy of the people.” On November 7, 2000, he called a press conference of foreign correspondents, during which he discredited some Venezuelan magazines and newspapers and a group of Venezuelan journalists.  He also attacked Colombian magazines Semana and Cambio 16, calling them “a disgraceful Colombian and continental oligarchy.”

 

24.              In February 2001, during the celebration of the ninth anniversary of the 1992 coup d’état, Chávez denigrated journalists by saying: “Down with journalists and capitalism” and  incited citizens to “call any journalist they see in the street names.”[14]

 

25.              According to information provided by various independent organizations, on August 4, 2000, Judge Graudi Villegas ordered the house arrest of the journalist Pablo Lopez Ulacio, director of the weekly La Razón, for failing to appear at a hearing on that day.  Lopez Ulacio was accused of defamation by Tobias Carrero, president of the company Multinacional de Seguros. The journalist had published articles in which he denounced supposed irregularities in the obtaining of public contracts by Multinacional de Seguros, by taking advantage of a personal relationship with the President of the Legislative Commission, Luis Miquilena. On February 7, 2001, the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights authorized precautionary measures in favor of Lopez Ulacio, who is currently in Costa Rica.

 

26.              On January 8, 2001, Pablo Aure Sanchez, professor of law at the University of Carabobo, was detained by military intelligence forces because of a letter he wrote that was published in the daily newspaper El Nacional.  The Third Military Tribunal considered that there were sufficient merits for the attorney to be tried for the crime set forth in Article 505 of the Code of Military Justice, which establishes penalties of three to eight years in prison for one who “in any form insults, offends or slights the Armed Forces.”  Venezuelan authorities informed the Special Rapporteur that the Armed Forces freed the attorney after three days in custody.  The Special Rapporteur spoke by telephone with Dr. Pablo Aure, who expanded on the information about his arrest and explained that he was freed for health reasons, but that the process against him under the military’s jurisdiction continues.

 

d.         Guatemala

 

27.              In April of 2000, the Special Rapporteur visited Guatemala at the invitation of its president, Alfonso Portillo Cabrera, and in response to a request by various sectors of Guatemalan society.  After the visit, the Special Rapporteur issued a press release with a preliminary analysis of the information gathered. The Special Rapporteur is currently preparing a special report about the state of freedom of expression in Guatemala that will be published in the next few months.

 

28.              Without prejudice to the information that will be presented in the report on freedom of expression in Guatemala, the Special Rapporteur expressed his serious concern regarding the information received, which reflects a climate of tension between state authorities and some communications media, as well as an increase in recent  months in the number of cases of intimidation of and threats against journalists.

 

29.              Additionally, there exists in Guatemala a de facto monopoly in open VHF television channels. The existence of a de facto monopoly in television channels has been criticized by a number of Guatemalan authorities and nongovernmental organizations, and it is also an issue of great concern for the Special Rapporteur. The existence of a de facto monopoly in television channels seriously affects the Guatemalan people’s right to freedom of expression and information.[15]  In this respect, the vast majority of the people interviewed by the Special Rapporteur during his visit to Guatemala said that although the open television channels are registered to anonymous societies, the majority holder is essentially a single person.  The Special Rapporteur wishes to reiterate that the existence of this monopoly is a serious obstacle to the full exercise of freedom of expression in the various sectors of Guatemalan society. The existence of monopolistic practices in communications media in the realm of television as well as radio and print media, is not compatible with the free exercise of freedom of expression in a democratic society.[16] 

 

30.              The following is some of the information received by the Special Rapporteur during his visit regarding incidents that constitute violations of freedom of expression.

 

31.              On February 20, 2001, according to information received, a group of demonstrators who identified themselves as supporters of the government’s party, the Frente Republicano Guatemalteco, gathered at the doors of the newspaper El Periódico with the aim of backing the Ministry of Communications, causing serious damage and physically assaulting journalists of this and other media. The demonstrators stated that the protest was motivated by some journalistic investigations undertaken by the newspapers El Periódico and Prensa Libre in relation to supposed irregularities in the concession of contracts by the Ministry. This type of attack against communications media restricts the fundamental rights of individuals and the full exercise of freedom of expression.

 

32.              On May 14 and 19, 2000, Martín Juárez, Luis Escobar, Enrique Castañeda and Silvia Gereda, journalists of the newspaper El Periódico were the target of surveillance and telephone threats intended to persuade them not to publish the results of an investigation into the structure of Guatemala’s intelligence services.[17]

 

33.              On May 22, 2000, Sergio Méndez, a reporter for the radio news program Guatemala Flash, and Eduardo Pinto, a reporter for the newspaper Nuestro Diario, received death threats and harassment to try to force them to stop covering the trial of the assassination of Bishop Juan Gerardi.[18] In relation to these threats, the State of Guatemala reported that it has asked the General Director of the National Civil Police, as well as the Attorney General of the Republic, to facilitate and deepen the investigations with the aim of establishing the identity of those responsible.

 

e.         Panama

 

34.              The Special Rapporteur visited Panama in July of 2000, in response to an invitation from the government of President Mireya Moscoso and to requests from various Panamanian civil society organizations that the Special Rapporteur evaluate the situation in this country. After the visit, the Special Rapporteur issued a press release with his preliminary evaluations of his visit[19] and he is currently working on a report on the state of freedom of expression in Panama, which will be published in 2001.

 

35.              Without prejudice to the information that will be presented in the report on freedom of expression in Panama, the Special Rapporteur expresses his concern for the increase in the use of desacato laws and other similar laws to silence journalists.  During his visit to Panama, the Special Rapporteur was informed of the government’s intention to introduce legislative reforms that would repeal these types of laws. Although the Panamanian state has implemented a series of reforms that repealed some of these laws, other laws remain in effect that continue to be used by public officials. In the Annual Report of the Office of the Special Rapporteur in 1999, the Special Rapporteur expressed his satisfaction about the advances in freedom of expression in Panama due to the repeal of part of the gag laws and urged the authorities to continue along this path.  However, according to information received during the year 2000 and part of 2001, freedom of expression in Panama is facing new threats from public officials who are using the laws to silence some communications media and social communicators.  According to information received, 70 journalists are being criminally prosecuted for libel and slander.[20]      

 

 

36.              On March 14, 2001, Juan Díaz, journalist with Panamá América and Rainer Tuñón, journalist with the daily newspaper El Universal were condemned to 18 months in prison for “crimes against the honor” of a public official. This prison sentence could be communted to a fine of $400 and a suspension of the right to exercise public functions for six months.[21] On March 19, 2001, a judge with the 14^th Circuit of the Penal Court, Secundino Mendieta, replaced the prison sentence of both journalists with a 200 day fine (US $2.00 per day).[22]

 

37.              On May 25, 2000 journalist Carlos Singares, director of the daily newspaper El Siglo, was served a warrant for his arrest for publishing news, the content of which “attacks and offends the dignity, honor, and decorum of the Attorney General of the Nation, José Antonio Sossa,” who personally ordered the detention of the journalist for eight days.  Also, on June 22, the same Panamanian official ordered a raid on the offices of the newspaper and the immediate arrest of the journalist. However, the journalist was not on the premises. Both the Office of the Special Rapporteur and other organizations that defend freedom of expression expressed their concern about this measure and sent letters to the Panamanian authorities. On July 7, the IACHR adopted precautionary measures in favor of the journalist. The Commission authorized the precautionary measures for a period of 30 days and asked the state to vacate the order of arrest against Mr. Singares and to guarantee his right to integrity, personal liberty and freedom of expression as established in the American Convention on Human Rights. On July 27, 2000, the Supreme Court of Panama denied the habeas corpus petition on behalf of Carlos Singares. On August 4, while the journalist was serving the eight-day prison sentence, a new contempt judgment was handed down, with a sentence of 18 months in jail, with reference to a newspaper article published in 1993 on former President Ernesto Pérez Balladares, who felt defamed by it and accused Singares of desacato.

 

38.              On July 14, 2000, journalist Jean Marcel Chéry, of the daily newspaper Panamá América, was sentenced to 18 months in jail, accused of contempt for publishing an article in the daily newspaper El Siglo in 1996.

 

39.              On July 31, 2001, Law 38 was enacted, regulating the Charter of the Public Prosecutor’s Office and General Administrative Procedure and restricting access to public information in its Article 70. One part of the law describes as “confidential or restricted information that which for reasons of public or private interest cannot be disclosed because it could cause serious harm to the society or the government or to the person subject to the restriction.”[23] This restriction on access to information contravenes Principle 4 of the Declaration.

 

40.              On October 2, 2000, journalist Mariella Patriau Hildebrandt and graphic reporter Adriana Navarro de Vivanco from the daily newspaperLiberación in Lima, Peru, were threatened and physically assaulted by Jaime Alemán, one of the attorneys of Vladimiro Montesinos, while they were trying to conduct an interview in Panama City.[24]

 

41.              In December 2000, the Legislative Assembly of Panama rejected the bill to remove the contempt laws from its domestic law books. The Rapporteur received a letter from the Human Rights Ombudsman of Panama, Italo Isaac Antinori-Bolaños, expressing concern about the decision made by the Committee on Governance, Justice and Constitutional Matters preventing the expunging of contempt laws from Panamanian legislation. As indicated repeatedly, these laws are inimical to freedom of expression and to Principle 11 of the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression. The action taken also contradicts the statements of made by President Mireya Moscoso to the Special Rapporteur during his visit to this country in July 2000.

 

42.              Since October 1999, journalist Gustavo Gorriti,[25] who served as Associate Director of La Prensa, has been the object of a campaign of defamation, which apparently arose out of a series of articles published in August in La Prensa on alleged links between Attorney General José Antonio Sossa and drug traffickers. Surprisingly, an independent organization, called the Committee for Freedom of Expression in Panama, appeared and began to post defamatory posters against the journalist in Panama City that read: ”Meet the killer of freedom of expression in Panama.”  This organization also referred to him as a “foreign spy” and called him an “untrustworthy person predisposed to commit treason.”  For its part, the Frente de Abogados Independientes called Gorriti persona non grata and urged him to leave the country.[26] The newspaper La Prensa reported that as part of this campaign of defamation, money was offered to other Panamanian journalists to write negative articles about La Prensa.  Attorney General Sossa publicly accused Gorriti of having initiated a campaign of “discredit and lies” against him.

 

43.              At the root of the incidents described, Attorney General Sossa filed a criminal complaint for defamation against Gorriti and in August of 2000, he and three of his colleagues—Miren Gutiérrez, Editor-in-Chief of the Business Section, and reporters Mónica Palm and Rolando Rodríguez—were summoned to testify. In an act of intimidation, the house of Gorriti and those of two of his colleagues were surrounded by the police in order to obligate the journalists to appear in the proceedings.

 

44.              As a result of the proceedings, orders of detention were issued against the journalists, which were not executed due to a petition for habeas corpus. The journalists stated that the complaint presented by Sossa was not served in a timely manner and from the beginning the process was plagued by judicial irregularities.[27]

 

45.              On January 12, 2001, Gorriti was granted a provisional stay of proceedings because there was insufficient evidence to prove the charges against him. On February 15, 2001, the journalist was dismissed from his job at La Prensa. On February 21, 2001, the Penal Court of Panama prohibited the journalist from leaving the country due to the ongoing judicial proceedings against him.[28] According to information received, due to an appeal filed on his behalf by his lawyer, Gorriti is currently in Peru, his country of origin.

 

46.              On March 12, 2001, the Minister of Government and Justice, Winston Spadafora, presented a penal complaint for libel and slander and crimes against honor against the director of the daily newspaper Pamamá América, Octavio Amat, the journalists Gustavo Aparicio and Jean Marcel Chéry and photographer John Watson Riley. This complaint was presented after the publication of an article in which it was reported that the farms belonging to Minister Spadafora and Comptroller Alvin Weeden were among the beneficiary properties of the Social Investment Fund.[29]

 

47.              On March 20, 2001, Marcelino Rodriguez, of the daily newspaper El Siglo, was accused of libel and slander by the Solicitor General, Alma Montenegro de Fletcher, as a result of the publication of one of his articles in which he referred to the official as the owner of a dwelling acquired under dubious circumstances. The Solicitor General denied the allegation and filed charges against the journalist.[30]

 

48.              On March 27, 2001, Vladimir Rodríguez, journalist from the daily newspaper Crítica Libre and RCM Noticias, was sentenced to a year in prison for the charges of libel and slander filed against him by the relatives of the Panamanian citizen, Rafael González. The journalist was accused by González’s family of publishing erroneous information about the cause of his death. The journalist wrote in his article that González had died of starvation, when in reality he had died of pneumonia. According to information received, the sentence against the journalist was executed even though no evidence was presented in the case that the journalist had used information irresponsibly.

CONTINUES...

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