Uruguay

In general terms, press freedom is in a good state. The clouds that had appeared on the announcement of the appointment of former Ecuadorean foreign minister Kintto Lucas to head the Uruguayan Presidency’s Institutional Communication Department were dispersed by President José Mujica, who decided to leave in suspense the naming planned for March 1. He understood that Lucas had not “adapted” to Uruguayan politics, nor understood the “reality” of the news media. The former number 2 of the Foreign Ministry, Rafael Correa, had given rise to a great controversy on the announcement of his appointment and his public statements had generated fear. There exists uncertainty about the sending to Congress by President Mujica on February 1 of a bill for a “press law” with regulatory measures on audiovisual communication. On December 26 the Uruguayan Press Association (APU), a labor union of social communication employees, put up for public consideration a draft Code of Ethics for Journalistic Activity, drawn up by a committee arising from the First Debate on Journalistic Activity and Mechanisms of Self-Regulation, so as to receive the support and opinions of interested parties. The deadline is February 28. On January 7, following several robberies at the homes of prominent people in Punta del Este and reports on them by the media the mayor of Maldonado, a territorial district that includes Punta de Este, Oscar de los Santos, railed against the press in general, declaring, “I have no doubt that there are financial and media interests that are attempting to undermine the tourism base of Maldonado and the country” – an allusion also to Argentine media, for reporting on the robberies of “famous people.” On January 23, in his radio message President Mujica spoke against the media. “Every day we find ourselves with useless appeals to deform reality. The elemental picture of reality is substituted with imaginings and lack of objectivity. One has to separate opinion and speculation from the information chapter,” were some of the comments, although he did not give any examples. For the president the responsibility of the practices that he criticized in his message is that of the print media, as “the majority of the reports are largely made with the contributions of the written press, and the written press, little read, is reproduced in the reports.” On January 27, the First Lady and Senator, in addition to being second in line of presidential succession, Lucia Topolansky, affirmed that the press in Uruguay is healthy and free, and then explained that when President Mujica says that the best press law is one that does not exist he refers to the fact that he is not in favor of establishing limits, because those same limits will bring about restrictions later. Nonetheless, she added immediately that this does not mean that there should not be any limits. On February 21, photographer Francisco Flores and driver Julio Secondo, of the newspaper El País, were covering an announcement in front of a criminal court when they were approached by police officers who were guarding the door. Both were handcuffed and detained for an hour in the courthouse where they were not permitted to use their cell phones to report what happened, nor were they told the reason for their detention, although the agents stated that it was on orders of Judge Marisa Fernández. On February 26 El País published statements by the new communications aide in the Montevideo city hall, Javier Zeballos, posted on his Facebook page, in which he referred several times to El País and to one of its journalists, Andrés López Reilly, accusing him of carrying out orders, obligated by the media outlet to monitor weekly agreements of the Mayor with her cabinet, and being paid to attack the city government systematically. Zeballos describes El País as a medium that considers itself very important, he talks about journalistic ethics, and accuses the journalist of writing lies.