Miami (October 21, 2008).—The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) today expressed concern at a series of incidents that have occurred during recent weeks in several Latin American countries in which journalists and press workers were assaulted and jailed, at times causing interruptions in the distribution of newspapers.
IAPA President Enrique Santos Calderón deplored the increase in violence and court rulings which he said make the work of the press more difficult. “We continue to observe, with great concern, the level of intolerance and the excesses being committed against freedom of the press and the public’s right to know,” he declared.
Among the incidents mentioned by Santos, co-editor of the Bogotá, Colombia, newspaper El Tiempo, were an attack on a Colombian journalist, blockage the distribution of newspapers in Mexico and Venezuela and the imprisonment of journalists in Bolivia and Peru.
The IAPA received a complaint from the Venezuelan newspaper Panorama that approximately 50 students from the University of Zulia prevented distribution of that paper for three hours on October 6. The act was in protest of the paper's coverage of the murder of university student leader Julio Soto. Soto and some members of the local police had been under official investigation for their alleged involvement in an unlawful operation involving student transportation tickets and handling large amounts of related cash, Panorama and other local news media had reported the scandal.
In Mexico, on October 15 a group of unidentified assailants fired at a Reforma newspaper delivery truck in the town of San Mateo, The deliverymen were unharmed.
In another incident, in Peru on October 16 Magali Medina, host of the television show “Magali TeVe” that reports on Peru’s show business stars and prominent figures, was sentenced to five months in prison for defamation on a charge brought by a football player. The sentence is considered excessive and out of proportion by a number of local media and legal experts who also fear it sets a dangerous precedent for the press. The program’s producer, Ney Guerrero Orellana, received a sentence of three months.
On October 13 in Bolivia, Jorge Melgar Quete, host of the television program “Camila y Macarena” broadcast by Canal 18 in Riberalta, was arrested and charged with “terrorism against state security and sovereignty” and sedition, among other offenses, after airing a video of interviews with peasants who claimed to have been tricked into traveling to the neighboring province of Pando, where there were violent clashes on September 11.
The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Robert Rivard, editor and executive vice president of the San Antonio Express-News, Texas, declared that while “we respect the decisions of the judiciary, due process must be observed during the course of these cases.”
In a final note, the IAPA reported the case of Mishelle Johana Muñoz, an announcer with Latina Estéreo radio station in Puerto Asis, Putumayo, Colombia, attacked on October 5. She had received threats and was warned to end her support of a national campaign to stiffen sentences of accused child molesters. An intruder burst into the radio station and beat her head and face.
