Chile

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During this period the exercise of freedom of the press has not suffered any setbacks, but there have been some minor incidents connected to the electoral campaign that ended on January 17. With election of all the members of the Chamber of Deputies and half of the Senate legislative action slowed down considerably and the bills concerning the press have not shown progress in being dealt with. On October 1 local police magistrate in Casablanca, a town near Valparaíso, decided to order the daily review of the print media in that locality, with the aim of halting distribution of any issue that contained untimely electoral advertising in contravention of the Law on Electoral Voting and Scrutiny. While this law empowers local police magistrates to deal with such violations and impose fines, it does not enable them to review media and stop those that break the rules on electoral advertising from circulating. Negative reaction to the magistrate’s decision caused it not to be carried out. Law No. 20,285 on Transparency in Public Duties and on Access to Government Administration Information, published in the Official Gazette on August 20, 2008, went into effect on April 20, 2009. In November, its having been in existence for six months, it was clear that major progress had been made concerning transparency, but there are still shortcomings and an obvious gap between the possibilities provided for under the law and their effective use by the people. Perhaps the biggest problem faced today by the Council for Transparency, an agency of a technical nature that takes up and rules on complaints of failure by government bodies to provide information, is the definition of the standards of active transparency for state-owned companies (National Television, Copper Corporation, State Bank, etc.). “Active transparency” is understood to mean a requirement that government bodies post updated information on their Web sites. A decision of the Council for Transparency ordered National Television to hand over details of its manager’s salaries and the Civil Service to reveal the evaluations of people applying for senior positions in the government. Both entities refused to do so, arguing that the matter was outside the Council’s competence. Early in March it was reported that National Television and the Civil Service had decided to file a formal complaint of unlawful action with the Santiago Appeals Court against the Council’s demands. Another problem, one which could limit the Council’s sphere of action, was the refusal of the government of the time to accept its 2010 budget proposal. The Council in early February this year issued two sets of guidelines designed to clarify certain aspects of application of the law regarding active transparency and directed at municipal governments and state-owned companies. In practice, the Council set a deadline of June 10 for full compliance with the resolutions concerned. The bill for a Law on Journalist Regulation, sponsored by the previous government, was approved on first reading by the Chamber of Deputies’ Special Committee on Freedom of Expression and News Media and the Senate. Under the Constitution it should be given a second reading in the Senate, for which purpose it is currently up for review by the Constitution, Legislation, Justice and Regulation Committee. To date it has not been acted on there. A bill to limit the extent of personal privacy, given freedom of expression, was sent to the Chamber of Deputies’ Special Committee on Freedom of Expression for discussion; however when the previous legislative session came to an end its review of the measure had not begun. As that committee was not a permanent one, when the legislative session ended and the new Congress was elected it automatically ceased to exist. A bill, later re-cast and adopted unanimously in the Chamber’s Domestic Government Committee, which sought to prohibit the publication of surveys and opinion polls on the days prior to an election was supported by the government. However, this effort, like other initiatives arising during times of elections, did not prosper. Because the newspaper La Nación, of which the Chilean government is the majority shareholder, was harshly critical of candidate Sebastián Piñera, when he won his election, rumors circulated that the paper would be put up for sale or shut down. But the new authorities have rushed to declare that there is no intention to separate themselves from the newspaper, but rather to reshape it to become more objective and pluralistic and “be allowed to publish public policies.” Indeed, it has appointed a new Board of Directors that includes four members representing the government.

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