Affronts to press freedom during the period have included judicial decisions, legislative acts and attacks on journalists and the media.
On May 19 the Paraguayan Chamber of Film and Television Producers submitted a proposal to the Ministry of Industry and Commerce for regulating national audiovisual and radio production. The Chamber argued there was a gap in the law in this area, and that the disproportionate broadcasting of foreign programs on Paraguayan channels was hampering creativity on television and radio, to the detriment of locally produced programming and cultural identity.
The Chamber also forayed into the news, asserting that it should be true, objective, relevant and avoid any content or forms of expression that cause a public disturbance or alarm the population.
On May 28 Judge Wilfrido Velázquez closed the case file on the December 2000 torture of Brazilian journalist Mauri Konig, allegedly by police, while he was investigating recruitment of Brazilian minors at police stations near the border with Brazil. Prosecutors had only requested reports from the National Police, when it was National Police officers the journalist had accused of torturing him. With the case closed, the perpetrators still enjoy impunity.
On June 11 Walter Reiser blamed the newspaper ABC Color for his dismissal from the position of director of the Paraguayan-Argentinean bi-national organization Yacyretá, alleging four months of intense persecution.
Reiser was alluding to reports in ABC Color on allegations of corruption under his management, especially the overbilling of more than a million dollars in relation to a building the organization had bought in Asunción for its headquarters.
On July 2 journalist Miguel López of the newspaper Ultima Hora reported he had received anonymous death threats by telephone and requested police protection. The threats had come after he had interviewed a leftist political leader and fugitive charged with belonging to a group that police said had kidnapped the wife of a prominent businessman.
Accusations of corruption made in the press frequently result in threats or legal action against editors or journalists of the various media.
On July 18 attorney Marcelino Gauto Bejarano asked a judge to initiate discovery in advance of filing suit against ABC Color editor Aldo Zuccolillo and Ultima Hora editor Demetrio Rojas for reports on colossal corruption at the Paraguayan-Brazilian hydroelectric power plant at Itaipú.
Gauto Bejarano is also a member of the Jury for the Prosecution of Judges and the Judicature Council, which presents slates of candidates for judgeships. Consequently, he wields a great deal of power in this area.
The newspapers had reported that the courts ordered the Itaipú plant to pay Mundy Recepciones an additional 10 billion guaranís (nearly 2 million dollars) on a past-due account for refreshments provided. The original amount owed was only slightly over 3 billion guaranís.
Gauto Bejarano is one of the Itaipú plants attorneys. The published reports said the plants interests had been insufficiently defended, since a number of court orders had been skirted. Even so, Gauto Bejarano subsequently withdrew his lawsuits.
In a striking development in the case, Judge Pedro Benítez Bernal had even planned to order ABC Color to name the journalists taking part in the investigation. But in the face of widespread criticism upon pre-publication of the order, which was viewed as a scare tactic directed at the press, the judge did not require the newspaper to do so.
On July 31 Judge Alcides Corbeta denied a request for information made by attorney José López Chávez, to identify the journalist at the newspaper Noticias who had linked him to a certain political leaning, as well as the journalists source for the report.
On August 6 a criminal complaint alleging defamation, false accusations and gross libel was filed against ABC Color editor Aldo Zuccolillo and Héctor Guerín, the editor of Vanguardia in Ciudad del Este (330 km. from Asunción).
The legal action was brought by attorney Adolfo Oscar Gigglberger Lima and Carlos Esteban Roa, a news photographer for the newspaper La Opinión. These two had been named in stories appearing in ABC Color and Vanguardia, citing a reliable source at a government prosecutors office, as having allowed the theft of a shipment of watches from an Asian man who had settled in Ciudad del Este.
On September 6 Speaker of Congress Juan Carlos Galaverna accused ABC Color editor Aldo Zuccolillo of manipulating information. The newspaper had published reports showing that Congress had meddled significantly in the trial of former president and Galaverna friend Juan Carlos Wasmosy for gross irregularities during his administration.
Galaverna ? himself associated with numerous acts of corruption and influence peddling and a confessed violator of the Constitution ? called Zuccolillos conduct disgraceful.
On September 20 former president Juan Carlos Wasmosy demanded through a notary that journalist Leo Rubín of Radio Ñandutí retract or repeat remarks implicating Wasmosy and others in events surrounding the death of savers defrauded by banks that failed during his administration.
On October 1 Vice President Angel Aguilera of the Paraguayan Chamber of Radio and Television Owners accused the National Telecommunications Commission in an interview of awarding frequencies to radio broadcasters on a chiefly political basis.
This accusation was followed by striking revelations of license grants and permits being issued for transfer to Asunción of radio broadcasters whose licenses had been granted for areas outside the capital.
One of these broadcasters (Radio 100) seeking to transfer to San Antonio near Asunción is allegedly owned by Speaker Galaverna, who has been accused of misconduct. Broadcast equipment had already been set up on a public beach in San Antonio, raising objections from local authorities and residents.
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