Paraguay

There has been relative calm in relations between the news media and the government during these last six months. President Fernando Lugo and other officials have held to their commitment not to introduce legislation that would regulate or restrict freedom of the press and the practice of journalism. In his annual address to Congress on July 1 Lugo stressed that “the government will not take a step backward in defense of a free press that promotes unmuzzled truth.” Some days later, during a visit to the newspaper ABC Color, he confirmed that “not a finger will be raised against freedom of the press.” Then, on August 18, Communications Minister Augusto Dos Santos denied a rumor that a press law was being considered, although he did urge self-regulation of the press. Another positive development was the establishment by the Executive Branch of the “Santiago Leguizamón Award” for the best investigative reporting into corruption, whose intent is to recognize the work of Leguizamón, a journalist murdered in a border town 20 years ago. Of concern, however, is a government plan concerning nearly 700 so-called community radio stations and more than 1,200 people operating them spread throughout the country. It is not yet clear what is the aim of this program, which involves enormous resources and looks more like a well-structured and well-funded governmental propaganda network than a “social communication plan.” An enlarged official advertising budget and, especially, the criteria for placement in various news media, are also giving rise to doubts. Huge government advertising expenses have come to light on August 20. In previous administrations the funds for such advertising by official entities and campaigns were used openly to silence the press or gain favors from journalists and media. Just two weeks ago the Paraguayan president shook the country with a strong speech in which he harshly criticized the upper classes, accusing them of putting a brake on change in the country. He said that “those who appear on newspapers’ society pages” and the wealthy were an obstacle to change. Lugo’s remarks unleashed a torrent of criticism, from which he sought to extricate himself by resorting to something that we all know – blaming the press. Some days later Lugo declared that the press had misquoted him and taken many of his remarks out of context. He added that the media had “spilled a lot of ink” for reasons that were unclear. Organized crime continues to be the major danger for the press. Rural areas on the border with Brazil are lawless lands where mafias, drug traffickers and smugglers flourish and grow stronger and infiltrate and become confused with security forces, in turn protected by local politicians. The lack of protection for media and journalists is so bad that self-censorship is a common practice. On June 21 the home of journalist Santiago Benítez of Radio Mburucuyá in Pedro Juan Caballero, a town on the Brazilian border, was shot at by unidentified assailants. The attack was believed to be in response to certain reports about drug trafficking that Benítez had aired. Santiago Leguizamón, for whom the award was named, had been the radio station’s director. Intimidation of journalists in telephone calls or text messages is common in the Amabay, Canindeyú, Alto Paraná and San Pedro provinces. These places shelter lumber and cigarette smugglers and marijuana producers, serving as transit points for cocaine bound for the Brazilian market. The Paraguay chapter of Amnesty International called for protection of the journalists there by the federal and local governments. Some restrictions on freedom of the press have been placed by certain judges, whose rulings have resulted in the imposition of absurd punishments on journalists or restriction of access to information. Cirilo Ibarra, a newspaper correspondent in the town of Limpio, on the outskirts of the Paraguayan capital, Asunción, is due to go on trial for having published the opinions of other people about Gustavo Bello, a politician belonging to the Colorado Party. In his lawsuit Bello says, “His (Ibarra’s) participation was fundamental for the dissemination of defamation of my good name.” Judge Manuel Aguirre accepted this argument and ordered the case to go to trial. A more complex case had to do with radio reporter Mina Feliciángelli, who filed suit after the government refused to allow an interview with leftist leader Carmen Villalba, sentenced to 18 years in prison for the kidnapping of Edith de Debernardi. Villalba is spokesman of the Army of the Paraguayan People (EPP), an armed group that has claimed responsibility for a number of attacks and abductions, one of them actually under way as this report was being prepared. She is being held at the Buen Pastor Criminal Prison in Asunción, where Feliciángelli went to do her interview. The Justice and Labor Ministry, the agency in charge of prisons in the country, denied permission, saying that “public institutions may not be used to spread terror, call to rebellion or spark mutinies.” Feliciángelli appealed, arguing that “constitutional principles on freedom to access information” were being undermined. Finally, on May 19, Judge Miguel Fernández threw out the journalist’s petition, on the grounds that “administrative recourse had not been exhausted.” The main developments during this period: On April 24, despite the fact that the government’s news agency was launched with the aim of “presenting a real, objective country” in the words of the Communications Minister, a scandal over the president’s fatherhood was not mentioned at all on the Web site. In September demonstrators backing the expropriation of large tracts of land in Puerto Casado, in the Chaco region, hurled rocks at and threatened reporters covering the march. The demonstrators’ fury was due to several news media having come out in opposition to the land takeover.