Uruguay

URUGUAY The Code of Criminal Procedure, which was to take effect in February of 1999, has been postponed until at least 2000. This removes some of the urgency of the demands by various media organizations that it be modified. These demands concern two articles in the new code-99 and 100-that order the media to both preserve the good name of criminal defendants and protect the identity of witnesses and other people involved, including the victims. When the name of a defendant or a suspect has been published, he or she would be given the right to demand publication "with the same prominence" of news of an acquittal, dismissal of a case or the end of the trial. The text has alarmed various assoclations of journalists and media companies. A joint delegation of the Press Association CAPU) and the National Association of Broadcasters CANDEBU) met with the Senate's Constitution and Legislation Committee, which agreed to review some paragraphs considered damaging to press freedom and to the citizens' right to be informed. A promising development for press freedom occurred on July 29 when the Administrative Law Court repealed a controversial decree that would have regulated the import of raw materials for newspaper publishing. In addition to establishing oversight over permits to import newsprint and other supplies, the decree authorized a Newsprint Committee associated with the Industry, Energy and Mining Ministry to impose limits on the import of equipment and raw materials. It also was authorized to punish those it determined had not complied with the regulations. All this was ruled illegal by the Administrative Law Court. There was also an intense debate in politics and in the media about the distribution of government advertising. A scandal was provoked when the state telecommunications monopoly ANTEL released its 1997 advertising expenditures at the request of a legislative committee. The president of ANTEL at that time, Ricardo Lombardo, a contender for the ruling party's presidential nomination for the elections the following year, insisted that the advertising was determined by technical criteria. It was apparent, however, that there was discrimination in the placement of official advertising. The Uruguayan Press Association reports that on July 17, police detained six employees of El Observador. Photographer Ivan Franco's equipment was seized and damaged and his film was exposed. The female workers, whose detention was absolutely unjustified, were treated in a degrading manner. At this time the case has not been resolved in court. So far this year, the register maintained by the association's Professional Affairs Committee has recorded 15 incidents including attacks by private parties and security officials against reporters and photographers at sports events and other journalistic assignments, as well as reports of threats and the withdrawal of advertising from news organizations outside the capital.