Paraguay

PARAGUAY Attacks on journalists and the media, court decisions and a bill about commercial advertising are limiting press freedom. A bill on "advertising and promotion of tobacco and alcoholic beverages" in the Chamber of Deputies would restrict advertising and promotion of legal substances, the Paraguayan Association of News Companies (ADEPP) sald in a press release August 28. The media see the Constitution's Article 27 as providing for the regulation of advertising, but not its limitation or prohibition. Newspaper executives point out that the promotion and advertising of products that can be freely manufactured and sold should not be restricted, even though health considerations might make it acceptable to publish explanatory warnings within the ads. Journalists work in a climate of insecurity. Candido Figueredo, ABC Color correspondent in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, has received repeated threats. Telmo Ibanez, also of ABC Color, and Luis Maria Flecha, a correspondent for the Private Communication Network, were attacked in Concepción, north of Asunción. The threats against Figueredo are being made by organized crime gangs operating in the Amambay region on the Brazilian border. They have put out a contract to kill him because of his repeated disclosures of their activities. Ibanez and Flecha were beaten up by members of the National Police while they were covering a squatters' demonstration. In an another event affecting press freedom, President Juan Carlos Wasmosy pressed charges against La Nación editor Osvaldo Dominguez Dibb March 27, as a result of a report in its March 19 edition alleged that the business consortiums CONEMPA and CIE, owned by Wasmosy's business group, had reaped millions of dollars through illegal tax exemptions. Criminal Court Judge Jose Gonzalez Macchi sentenced Ultima Hora editor Demetrio Rojas to a fine of 15 million guaranis (some $7,000) for libeling politician Francisco Elizeche Baudo. The politician felt offended at being described as a "little tramp" in the newspaper's "Darkroom" column. An appeals court overturned the sentence. Elizeche Baudo's lawyers have in turn appealed to the Supreme Court. Criminal Court Judge Ruben Darlo Frutos July 19 prohibited Diana Noticias columnist Rita Hevia from publishing reports about alleged illicit baby trafficking. Several legal experts called the gag order an attack on freedom of the press. Judge Frutos was acting on a formal complaint by lawyer Juan V. Talavera against the columnist, who had published documents said to be connected with the illicit adoptions. Talavera argued that the columnist had made his personal and private documents public, thus jeopardizing his professional standing in connection with legal international adoption of children. The judge later reversed his decision. In another case, Electoral Tribunal Judge Patricia Blasco ordered "the suspension of any news publication that deals with the electoral campaign of any of the segments of the National Republican Association (the Colorado Party) for the August 11, 1996, elections." Her August 8 ruling was on a writ filed by the self-styled Movement of Colorado Reconciliation of the ruling Colorado Party. The writ was filed in a bid to stop campaign propaganda of political party candidates being published in the newspaper ABC Color and the magazine La Opin6n. A criminal court upheld a ruling handed down five years ago that rejected an attempt by Alto Parana governor Carlos Barreto Sarubbi to restrict certain publications and to jail journalists investigating and reporting on smuggling and other unlawful activities on illegal airstrips in this eastern part of the country. On August 31, 1991, then Criminal Judge Jorge Gonzalez threw out a libel suit by Barreto Sarubi against ABC Color editor Aldo Zuccolillo and journalists Hector Guerin and Juan Carlos de Vargas. In his suit, Barreto Sarubbi had called for the three to be jailed for alleged defamation.