Andres Oppenheimer. Published Thursday, May 11, 2000, in the Miami Herald
A report on freedom of the press scheduled to be unveiled today by a special rapporteur of the 34-nation Organization of American States singles out two countries -- Cuba and Peru -- as the hemisphere's worst enemies of free expression.
Cuba's ranking as the No. 1 enemy of free speech comes as no surprise.
The Cuban Constitution says the media are property of the state and cannot be used ``against the Cuban people's decision to build socialism and communism.'' Criticism of Cuba's president is punished with long prison sentences.
But Peru's status as the hemisphere's No. 2 repressor of free speech is a relatively new phenomenon. Unlike Cuba, Peru is a democracy where opposition parties are legal.
The OAS special rapporteur for freedom of expression is Santiago A. Canton, and his semi-independent office is proving to have more stamina than the often sleepy organization to which it belongs. In his annual report to be presented today, he lists Peru as a country where ``freedom of expression
is seriously limited.''
``The special rapporteur finds that, in Peru, there are no basic guarantees for the full exercise of freedom of expression,'' the report says. ``There is a systematic plan of harassment on the part of [government] intelligence services and security forces, which has gone from threats and smear
campaigns to acts that amount to serious violations of human rights. To this systematic plan, one must add the passive attitude of the justice system, which does not investigate in a serious and effective manner the abuses and crimes against journalists.''
It cites cases such as the daily La Republica, whose publisher, Gustavo Mohme, died of a heart attack last month. The report says he had received repeated death threats and had been the target of smear campaigns by pro-government media. It also cites the case of Baruch Ivcher, the former owner
of Channel 2, who was stripped of his TV station in a highly suspicious business maneuver.
The report also cites concern about the deaths of half a dozen journalists in Colombia, an obsolete state security law in Chile and a law that requires journalists to have professional registration cards in the Dominican Republic. In addition, it raises questions about Venezuela's new
constitution, which proclaims the right to ``truthful and impartial information,'' a potential license to censor for the country's rulers.
On the positive side, it mentions progress in Panama, where the government scrapped defamation ``gag'' laws, and in Argentina, where Congress is considering changing an outdated libel law.
Is the report fair? Its findings generally coincide with those of nongovernmental groups like the Inter-American Press Association and the Committee to Protect Journalists. The CPJ put out a list this month of the world's 10 worst enemies of the press, which included Cuba's Fidel Castro and
Peru's Alberto Fujimori.
If it had covered the first months of this year, the OAS report might have paid a little more attention to Venezuela, where two prominent journalists -- Teodoro Petkoff, former publisher of El Mundo, and Napoleon Bravo, of the 24 Horas TV news show -- have accused President Hugo Chavez of
pressuring their bosses to fire them.
But the consensus among U.S.-based press watchdog groups is that the OAS report is on target. Considering that it comes from a multinational organization where governments often block critical reports, its findings are pretty candid.
Copyright 2000 Miami Herald |