Bolivia

Ever since President Evo Morales called the press “the government´s main enemy” in 2005, attacks against journalists and the media have not ceased. An IAPA mission visited President Morales on May 27. It criticized attacks against journalists and independent media outlets, as well as similar attacks by the opposition against reporters and media companies that serve the government. The IAPA evaluated complaints by various journalists' associations. The media demonstrated that the government skillfully manipulates the press. This was illustrated by a television spot that makes it appear that IAPA President Enrique Santos Calderón agrees with President Morales that there is press freedom to the point of excess in Bolivia. The President of Bolivia used the meeting with IAPA to make fun of journalists and to say that he did not have news conferences with Bolivian journalists because they were disorderly like “farm chickens” and ambushed him with questions. He did not give press conferences because journalists protested the president´s humiliation of a journalist in December. They placed their microphones, recorders, cameras and notebooks at the door of the presidential palace. In the past six months, 111 journalists, 104 from the prívate media, have been physically and verbally attacked. The Supervision and Monitoring Network on Press Freedom of the National Pres Association (ANP), said the verbal attacks were by President Morales and official sectors of what is now called the Plurinational State of Bolivia, formerly the Republic of Bolivia. The country´s name was changed in January of this year. There were also 36 attacks on media outlets, 32 of them privately owned. The most serious attack occurred on September 3 when a special police unit called the Tactical Crisis Unit (UTARC) attacked a team from the Unitel television network that was following them in a car during an operation. A police car hit the journalists´ vehicle and they were ordered to lie face down. The police officers fired a machine gun burst, destroyed the camera and confiscated the tape. The Government Ministry and the Bolivian General Police Command said they would investigate, but the case has not been solved. Army Captain Walter Andrade was identified as the UTARC commander and main attacker. He had participated in illegal arrests and in the so-called Pando Massacre, during which this police unit killed three alleged terrorists. Other attacks included one on a television cameraman whose face was cut with a knife; an attempt to lynch a journalist in a suburb of La Paz; the inclusión of five journalists in a racism trial the government is conducting in the capital, Sucre; the robbery of equipment and insults against journalists and the media by authorities; and many cell phone threats against journalists. A newspaper did not publish a special section about a farmers´ organization questioning official reports about an alleged terrorism case, apparently because it feared violent reprisals and because the government had announced that it would put La Razón on trial for publishing it. In September, police clubbed journalists who were marching to demand that the Press Law be applied rather than ordinary law in a lawsuit the mayor´s office intended to bring against a reporter. The authorities have not announced any measure to respond to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights which urged Bolivia to investigate the cases of two journalists who were killed, Juan Carlos Encinas in 2001 and Carlos Quispe Quispe in 2007. Press unions and associations asked the Government Ministry and the police commander to make serious efforts to find the culprits, but despite their promises, there has been no progress in the cases. The government has stepped up its use of state media for political propaganda with an eye toward the general elections in December for a president, vice president, senators and members of the Chamber of Deputies. A freedom of information bill is stalled in the Chamber of Deputies. On October 27, the National Press Association (ANP) formed an Ethics Court that will judge ethical violations by member organizations. Its members are Armando Villafuerte, former chief justice of the Supreme Court; Willman Durán, former chief judge of the Constitutional Court; and journalists Jaime Humérez, Alberto Zuazo and Harold Olmos. New actions against journalism are feared.