Puerto Rico

PUERTO RICO Press freedom is subject to pressure and harassment. The country's principal newspaper, El Nuevo Día, and journalists from several print and broadcast media say they are confronting repeated pressure and hostility from the government to keep them from criticizing Governor Pedro Rose1l6's administration. On April 14, the government suddenly ordered the cancellation of all official advertising scheduled for placement in El Nuevo Dfa, after the newspaper published several investigative reports. One report concerned state telephone company contractors who evaded taxes, and led to the resignation of the telephone company president. The newspaper also ran an investigation into tax fraud involving the Treasury Ministry and automobile distributors, as well as revelations about a water purification plant that was scheduled to cost $8 million, but in which the government had already invested $33.2 million at the beginning of the year. Governor's Office Secretary Angel Morey claimed that the cancellation of advertising was due to "market strategy" and "the budget" of government entities and denied that the governor had ordered the cancellation. Several international press associations protested the discrimination, saying that technical norms such as the circulation of El Nuevo Día had not been taken into account in the placement of official advertising, and that the government was trying to use its $63 million advertising budget to control or influence the editorial policy of the newspapers. After the cancellation of official advertising, El Nuevo Día journalists faced the hostility of government officials and the governor himself. They were refused interviews; their questions were left unanswered; their requests for public documents were denied or delayed; the newspaper was forced to go to court to obtaln documents about a water shortage this summer, and was finally given the documents on the eve of a court decision. Finally, El Nuevo Día was "by chance" among the first companies to be audited by the Treasury Department, attributing the investigation to the implementation of an official plan to audit highprofit enterprises. The harassment campaign included the fixing of decals in public places urging newspaper readers not to buy El Nuevo Día. On August 19, a government party activist convened an "act of repudiation" in front of the newspaper's offices, but the demonstration was canceled when it found few participants. On this occasion, according to a local EFE report, Governor Roselló said that he was not aware of the planned demonstration, but termed it "a free act of expression." Upon noting the finnness maintained by the newspaper in its editorial stance, the Administration of Rules and Permissions, the Department of Consumer Affairs and the Planning Board charged the Puerto Rican Cement Company, Puerto Rico's most important cement producer, with violations of regulations. The Ferre-Rangel family, the principal owner of El Nuevo Día, holds 30 % of the shares in the cement company. The charge of alleged irregularities - which the government has pointed out now for the first time in many years and in some cases have led regulatory agencies to revoke previously granted permissions with total disregard for the legal guarantees of free enterprise - is intended to persuade the FerreRangel family to compromise the editorial stance of the newspaper. Moreover, both El Nuevo Día and the Puerto Rico Cement Company have been forced to change lawyers, because the government has already warned several law firms that it will cancel their government contracts if they agree to represent the newspaper or the cement company. While the government increases its persecution of the Puerto Rico Cement Company, Governor Roselló and prominent government officials are playing down their dispute with El Nuevo Dïa. Thus, in August, the governor granted an interview to a El Nuevo Día reporter who had requested the interview four months beforehand. In responses to questions at press conferences, Rose1l6 downplayed the dispute and denied that it was harassing the Ferre-Rangel family through its other businesses. Although at the beginning the cancellation of advertising was attributed to "market strategy" and "budgetary reasons," the new reason given is the newspaper's increased advertising rates, even though those rates were not in effect when the advertising was canceled. The co-publishers of El Nuevo Día, Maria Luisa Ferre Rangel and Luis Alberto Ferre Rangel, held discussions with government officials to protest the attempt to manipulate the newspaper. On August 14, Government House Press Secretary Pedro Rosario Urdaz expressed the reasons for the governor's discontent and asked that the reporter assigned to cover Rosello be replaced. After the co-publishers explained the newspaper's stance, the official replied, "If you lower your voice, then we'll lower ours." On August 27, Governor's Office Secretary Angel Morey called the co-publishers' argument for a need for balanced information" small details that don't matter much to me" and suggested that the newspaper and the government find "common ground" to reclaim editorial support for several official undertakings such as "the privatization of the telephone company, the new law of industrial incentives, and the 'hard-line' policy in the jail system." Other negative developments: When official advertising was canceled in El Nuevo Día in April, David Murphy, president of television channel TeleOnce, admitted publicly, "We have experienced this censorship in the past and almost weekly some government agency withdraws its advertising because of some report it doesn't like." Radio journalist Luis Francisco Ojeda faces a libel lawsuit filed by the former secretary general of the ruling party Marcos Morell. The court must decide, among other things, if the journalist has to reveal his sources about alleged acts of corruption within the context of traffic of influence. Ojeda claims that the suit is part of an ongoing process of coercion against himself and the radio station because of its investigative journalism program. The radio round table "Voz Primera" broadcast on Noti-Uno Radio was canceled in June because of what producer Bennie Frankie Cerezo characterized as government pressures following a period of coercion and harassment. The program suddenly went off the air as a result of a decision by the radio station, and the airtime was occupied by the governor's former press secretary Rafael Cerame, vice-president of an advertising agency which handled many government accounts.