Nicaragua

57th General Assembly Washington, DC October 12 – 16, 2001 NICARAGUA Since the last meeting, Principles 7 and 8 of the Declaration of Chapultepec have been violated in Nicaragua. Principle 8 was violated when Law 372, the Law to Create the Journalists Colegio of Nicaragua (published April 16, 2001, in La Gaceta, the official government newspaper) went into effect providing for obligatory licensing. It violates the Nicaraguan Constitution as well as Articles 13 and 29 of the Inter-American Convention on Human Rights, or Pact of San José, and Article 19 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. After it was published in La Gaceta, two constitutional appeals were filed in the Supreme Court. The first was filed on behalf of themselves by representatives of La Prensa, El Nuevo Diario, Canal 2, Canal 8 and Canal 10. The second was filed, also on a personal basis, by three officers of the Nicaraguan Journalists Association (APN). As a consequence of the APN’s opposition to the obligatory licensing law, the colegio cannot be formed, because, according to Article 39 of the law, the members of the colegio will be ipso jure all members in good standing of the two journalists’ associations: the APN and the Nicaraguan Journalists Union, a Sandinista organization. The law also stipulates that an organizing committee will be formed within three months after the law is published, made up of two representatives of each organization. This period expired on July 16, and the committee has not been formed which leaves the law without effect. The APN, in addition to appealing the law, is lobbying the executive and legislative branches to approve proposed changes in the law. It is unlikely that this change will be approved during the current election campaign. And, a Supreme Court decision is not expected during this period. Principle 7 of the Declaration of Chapultepec, which refers to the granting of government advertising, is also being violated by the government of President Arnoldo Alemán. This article says, “the granting or withdrawal of government advertising may not be used to reward or punish the media or individual journalists.” El Nuevo Diario, which had an average of 36% of government advertising in the print media, has suffered a drastic drop since June. Government advertising in El Nuevo Diario dropped to 13.85% in June and only 4.84% up to July 16. According to information published in El Nuevo Diario, it received only 4% of government advertising from July 1 to 12. The newspaper La Noticia, which supports President Alemán and according to surveys by the Nicaraguan Organization of Advertising Agencies (ONAP) has a readership rating of only 2%, is receiving 45% of government advertising in the print media. This is another violation of Principle 7, because it awards official advertising to media outlets whose editorial line favors the government. On July 4, a Chapultepec forum was held at the Universidad Centroamericana with the participation of journalism students and other prominent members of society. President Alemán was invited to the forum but sent regrets because of government business. The three presidential candidates – Enrique Bolaños Gayer of the Liberal Constitutionalist Party (PLC), Daniel Ortega Saavedra of the Sandinista Front of National Liberation (FSLN) and Noel Vidaurre of the Conservative Party (PC) – signed the Declaration of Chapultepec and promised to respect press freedom if they win the November 4 election. Later, Vidaurre withdrew from the race. Press freedom has been an important issue in the campaign. One month before the vote, the race seemed to be even between the Sandinista party and the Liberal Constitutionalist Party. Ortega, who in the 1980s headed a leftist revolutionary government that confiscated and closed most media outlets and maintained censorship on the few that remained in private hands, now has promised absolute respect for press freedom. On International Journalists Day, September 8, Ortega issued a statement in which he committed himself: 1) to comply with the 10 principles of the Declaration of Chapultepec; 2) to support the Law of Access to Information in the first 30 days of his administration; 3) to create conditions allowing journalists access to all government facilities; 4) to draft in consensus with the media, regulations to assign government advertising proportionate to circulation figures, guaranteeing a minimum to publications with small circulation; and 5) to express his commitment never to use taxes to punish media outlets that do not support the government. For his part, Bolaños has said he has nothing to apologize for because he has always respected press freedom. He stressed that while he was vice president, he drafted a bill guaranteeing access to information which was tabled in the National Assembly. On August 1, when President Alemán was participating in an unofficial event watching an equestrian parade during Santo Domingo celebrations, the most popular event in Managua, he allowed several journalists to come up on the platform to interview him. Minutes later he grabbed Eloísa Ibarra of El Nuevo Diario, by the left wrist, holding it tightly and shook her, shouting, “Sandinista, Sandinista.” According to Ibarra, she repeated the question that had angered him, and the president followed her, saying “It’s an invention, a Sandinista invention,” and continued shouting as she left. El Nuevo Diario said in an editorial that the president had been “in a drunken state.” The Supreme Electoral Council (CSE) published “Rules of Electoral Ethics,” whose Article 97 says that “72 hours before the election all campaign activity shall end and the media are under the orders of the Supreme Electoral Council to disseminate information about the procedure of exercising suffrage.” Article 2 of the same regulations states an obligation to contribute to the conduct of the election and the campaign in a way that is educational and forms civic values. This article is obligatory for election officials, authorities, officers, political parties, journalists, owners and directors of news programs and members of civic groups and citizens in general. The television station Canal 6, rented time to private parties to broadcast a program recalling events during the Sandinista government in the 1980s. The program was denounced, first by the army and later by the FSLN, which also protested other programs on the same channel calling them libelous because of the way they presented the topics. The management of Canal 6, said that because of its small budget the channel had to rent air time and could not censor those who rented it. The dispute has not been solved by the Supreme Electoral Council. The radio news show “Púlsar Noticias” directed by Adolfo Pastrán Arancibia on Radio la Primerísima, was closed by the station’s management because Pastrán Arancibia, who was also news director of the station, signed a consulting contract with Pedro Solórazno, Managua campaign manager of the Liberal Party candidate. La Primerísima is a leftist station that had distanced itself from the FSLN because of ideological differences. However, the great polarization of the campaign, which is in a technical dead heat, caused the station’s board of directors to overcome their political differences with Ortega and agree to endorse the FSLN. Pastrán resigned as news director after the station’s management denied him permission to take leave until after the election, and his news show was suspended because of his consulting contract with Solórzano. Miguel Angel Rodríguez, the president of Costa Rica, accused Nicaraguan journalists of responsibility in the confrontation between the two countries over the border dispute along the San Juan River. “You Nicaraguan journalists are the ones who start war between our countries, because of your scandalous news reports,” he said in answering a question by a representative of Nicaragua’s Canal 6.

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