Bolivia

The crisis affecting all parts of Bolivian society, and especially the written media, caused the closing of the newspapers Presencia and Ultima Hora in La Paz. During the social unrest, the media published news without government restrictions although there were some attacks on journalists by union members, farmers, police officers and military people. There were attacks on journalists and the media in the tropical area of Cochabamba, where illegal coca is eradicated and which is considered a military operation zone. In the legal area, changes to the Constitution promoted by the executive and legislative branches include several articles damaging press freedom. At the end of September a group of journalists from the city of Cochabamba, who had traveled to the Chapare area to get information about the siege of a military base by coca-growing farmers, were attacked by military men. Bolivian army snipers fired over the heads of the journalists and fired chemical gases to prevent the journalists from approaching the base. A farmer near the journalists was shot, and he died 20 minutes later. The journalists were in the zone to get information and check the condition of the farmer siege. The ombudsman, Ana María Romero, said a representative she sent to the zone to investigate the incident could not enter the base and was only able to converse with the officers from 200 yards away. Nevertheless, Romero made it clear that under international humanitarian law the military should not fire on unarmed civilians. Up to this point, neither the armed forces nor the police have detained the person responsible for this death. On October 29, 2001, the farmers' radio station Soberanía de la Coca (Sovereignty of Coca) in Villa Tunari in the tropical area of Cochabamba was ordered by the prosecutor's office to identify the person or persons who had ordered announcements calling for violence and those who authorized their broadcast under threat of shutting down the station. "This is a union radio station and all we do is publicize what is decided in assemblies," the station's news director, René Lamí, said. The station's representatives called the legal action judicial harassment and intimidation. Soberanía de la Coca did not comply with the legal demand, and the public prosecutor's office ordered a military-police unit to confiscate its equipment to prevent it from continuing its broadcasts. The vice minister of social defense who runs the nation's anti-drug effort said the Telecommunications Authority should cancel the licenses of broadcast stations that encourage subversion. According to Oswaldo Antezana, Bolivia's "drug czar," Radio Soberanía, the "Voice of the Coca Growers" in Chapare, deserved prosecution because it was involved in broadcasting subversive messages. On January 22, 2002, the Telecommunications Authority closed Radio Soberanía de la Coca, owned by the Farmers' Federation because it had no license. The minister, Mauro Bertero, confirmed the takeover of the radio station in the town of Chipiriri and the participation of the public prosecutor's office in an operation authorized by an administrative decision issued December 14, 2001. The regulatory agency waited a month and a half before carrying out the decision just when the unrest in the zone was getting worse. Guido Loayza, the superintendent of telecommunications, said the station's equipment was seized by its staff, and added that this type of action has always been conducted by law enforcement agencies. The station was one of 72 radio stations seized by the Telecommunications Authority. The government, however, overturned the suspension of Radio Soberanía during the second week of February. It was authorized to resume operations under the condition that its programs comply with certain regulations, that it obtain a license and that it change its name because there is a station in Tarija with the same name. In February of 2002 several journalists in the city of Cochabamba were attacked by police during demonstrations by coca-growers. A bill called the Law on the Necessity of Constitutional Reform drafted by the Citizens' Commission for Reform of the Constitution, which will be debated in the National Congress, has at least two articles that violate press freedom and the right of press confidentiality. It involves enforcement of the right of habeas data which requires journalists to make public "the source of a news item that could be seen as violating the rights and guarantees in the constitution." But the initiative journalists are most concerned about is the proposed Article 25 which at least is contradictory, since on the one hand it guarantees press freedom and on the other it prohibits confidential sources which in some cases have disclosed important cases of corruption. The existing Press Law says in Article 8, "Secrecy in press matters is inviolable." And Article 9 underlines that "the publisher or printer who discloses confidential information to a political authority or a private individual without the order of a judge has criminal responsibility for violating the public trust under the Penal Code." However, the new bill proposes in Article 20 (new) that "I. Any person who believes he has been improperly or illegally prevented from learning about, objecting to or obtaining elimination or correction of personal information or inexact or false information that may be in public or private files or databases that affect the rights and guarantees recognized by this constitution may request the right of habeas data before the proper judicial authority." II. "The procedure of the appeal to habeas data will be the same established for constitutional appeal in Article 9." Confidential sources. The text of Article 26 orders that "I. Press freedom is guaranteed." "Censorship is forbidden" "II. "Secrecy is not allowed." "The law regulates the right to the conscience clause and the right to confidential sources in the free exercise of journalism." "III. The rights of reply and correction are guaranteed." "IV. The government may not pass laws, decrees or decisions that limit or restrict freedom of expression by any media outlet." Despite the media's opposition, the legislature passed changes in the Electoral Code, and they were put into effect by the executive branch without paying attention to journalists' demands to overturn them or to retain in its earlier text articles 114 and 119 which regulate the times of publication of political advertising and the fees charged for it. A lawsuit has been filed in the Constitutional Court alleging that these articles are unconstitutional. Meetings have been held between owners of media outlets and legislators to draft new articles to be discussed and approved in parliament, but the negotiations have not yet had a positive outcome. Article 114 says the election campaign shall begin the day after the official announcement calling elections and will end 24 hours before the day of the elections. It says it can only begin 90 days before the election and end 24 hours before Election Day. Article 119 says "all media outlets are required to register through their legal representative at the National Electoral Court their programs, times and hours as well as their fees during the period of election advertising. These fees cannot in any case be more than the average commercial fees charged during the first quarter of the year before the election and must be registered in the National Electoral Court and the state electoral courts at least 180 days before the date of the national election." The National Electoral Court will publish the list of media outlets authorized to carry political advertising 15 days after the call for elections. Political parties that buy political advertising in unauthorized media outlets will be fined the equivalent of double the amount of the average fee registered in the National Electoral Court for the time and space used. The purchase of time and space in the press, radio and television for political advertising is recognized as the exclusive right of political parties. Candidates may only use the times assigned to them by the political party or alliance. Finally, the murder of Juan Carlos Encimas, on July 19, 2001, has not been solved.