PARAGUAY
Several incidents have seriously affected press freedom. On August 6, Candido Figueredo, correspondent of the newspaper ABC Color in the city of Pedro Juan Caballero, received a death threat from unidentified individuals believed to belong to the mafia involved in drug-trafficking in the Brazilian
border area.
The threats, made in anonymous telephone calls, started after the publication of a story reporting the formation of a Japanese faction within the hierarchy of the Brazilian drug cartel operating in the city.
Figueredo complained to his colleagues on August 11 that he had received no protection and feared to go near the international border that separates the Paraguayan city and Ponta Pora in Brazil, since it is a favorite area of paid assassins. Santiago Leguizamón, the then-director of Radio Mburucuya.,
was murdered there four years ago.
Figueredo received anonymous death threats again on August 8. Shortly before, Figueredo had received another phoned threat while broadcasting an interview on the radio station La Voz del Amamba, in which he described threats he had received in preceding days and invited listeners who disagreed with the editorial lines of his newspaper or with any of its news stories to express their views. At that moment, an unidentified individual speaking in Portuguese rang up the station and declared: "That journalist had better stop talking, because he has not got much time left. We are going to kill him."
In another incident, which occurred on August 9, an anonymous caller telephoned the regional bureau of the National Television Network (Channel 9) in Pedro Juan Caballero, uttering threats against one of its news correspondents, Mario Lesme. Lesme had also been exposing the corruption that
pervades the area.
In addition, unknown individuals riding in a pickup truck opened fire with a heavy-calibre weapon on the building housing Diario Noticias, later fleeing at high speed. The incident occurred at 1 a.m. on May 15. No one was injured.
On August 29, the Chamber of Deputies passed a bill that would amend Article 301 of the Electoral Code to require that: " ... radio and television media will dedicate, free of charge, 3% of their air time to explaining the platforms of the parties, political movements and alliances that take part in elections, during the 10 days immediately preceding the end of the election campaign. To the same end, and during the same time period, newspapers will dedicate one page of each edition."
The bill, now before the Senate, was branded by the Paraguay Newspaper Association (ADEP) as "without any merit whatsoever." The association pointed out that Article 109 of Paraguay's Constitution prohibits the confiscation of goods and clearly guarantees that private property is inviolable.
Consequently, the Association maintains, no one can be deprived of goods or property except under due process of law. As ADEP sees it, the confiscation of page space or air time amounts to a serious infringement of freedom of the press.
On July 27, Criminal Court Judge Carlos Monges granted an injunction filed by former Paraguayan President Andres Rodriguez, ordering Radio Nandutlito cease and desist from making any allusions to the ex-president's public or private life. The injunction applies to call-in shows and to any
other program broadcast by the radio station, particularly one entitled, "Appointment with Truth," which is emceed by journalist Herminia Feliciangeli.
The proceeding is related to a controversy that arose concerning the alleged usurpation of a ranch named "Primavera," located in western Paraguay. According to a complaint aired by Jose Caballero Caiiete and Bernarda de Caballero over Radio Nanduti and in the newspaper Noticias, the ranch is currently listed as the property of General Rodriguez, but the two complainants maintain that they are the real owners.
The director of Radio Nandutf, Humberto Rubin, described as a "horrific outrage" the court ruling barring his radio station from offering air time to citizens to call in and voice their opinions about General Andres Rodriguez's public and private life. He declared that his station would continue broadcasting
normally and emphasized his view that the injunction is inapplicable. And the Association of Proprietors of Private Radio Stations (APRAP) pointed out that measures resulting from the misuse of so-called "protective injunctions" have been rejected not only by the nation's Congress but by the Paraguayan citizenry in general. A comparably bad precedent - the prior restraint of a similar radio program called "The Eye," was repudiated by both the Inter American Press Association and the International Broadcasting Association.
When all was said and done, however, on last August 10 Judge Monges rejected the former president's petition for an injunction as inappropriate. He based his turnabout on Paraguay's constitutional guarantees of free speech and press freedom. He also emphasized that there are other avenues that the expresident can pursue if he feels offended by the radio broadcast.
However, at the same time, the judge's amended decision cites Article 28 of the National Constitution as recognizing the right of persons to receive truthful, responsible and impartial information. The ruling would appear to codify a right whose exercise presupposes three conditions that are difficult to
prove subjectively.
In other developments, on July 24 Guillermo Campuzano, mayor of Ciudad del Este, on the Brazilian border, filed libel charges against ABC Color correspondent Hector Guerin. The accusation followed a series of articles bylined by Guerin that linked the mayor with numerous cases of alleged corruption.
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