Conclusions

Tim Lopes, an investigative reporter for the television network O Globo, was kidnapped, tortured and murdered. His body was dismembered, burned and secretly buried. The uproar this horrendous murder caused forced the authorities to act quickly and arrest the suspects. In another instance, the owner and publisher of Folha do Estado in the city of Cuiabá was shot six times and killed for publishing investigative reports denouncing the installation of slot machines in his state. Colombia is still subject to the brutality of drug traffickers, guerrillas and paramilitary forces. In the last six months, four reporters were killed because of their work; in two other cases the motives remain unknown. In Venezuela, photographer Jorge Tortoza lost his life at a demonstration instigated by President Hugo Chávez’s inflammatory rhetoric. There were other murders in Ecuador, Bolivia and Mexico, the motives for which remain unknown. Ironically, at the same time, the “industry” of lawsuits against newspapers and journalists has grown. It reached such a point that the Bar Association in Paraiba, Brazil, reported that there are lawyers who try to make money by “hunting” for people who allegedly have been libeled and persuading them to sue for very large punitive damage awards. Within the climate of continuous harassment of the press in Venezuela a bill called the Enabling Law for Citizen Participation has been introduced. It would create a National Council to Oversee the Media made up of neighborhood associations that would have the authority to impose fines or to order the closure of any media outlet that violated its regulations. In some Caribbean countries it has been suggested that the Organization of Eastern Caribbean States try to establish a code of ethics for the media, resulting in essence with state officials setting rules of conduct for those who exercise press freedom. The right of freedom of expression cannot and should not be subject to commissions and special rules, nor licensing, university degrees or membership in colegios. In this context, objections should be raised to regulations and bills in Nicaragua, Panama, Colombia, the Dominican Republic and Guatemala. Many governments wish to control the flow of news and opinion, and they can use the proposed World Summit on the Information Society to be held in Geneva in December 2003 for this purpose. Freely expressing opinions is still a crime punishable by imprisonment in Cuba. Dissemination of news abroad is also sanctioned, and the government has gone to the extreme of announcing the loss of rights of inmates in prison because a journalist held there sent out information. War or the threat of war has contributed to the erosion of access to information in the United States. American news organizations have made requests, even in courts, to obtain such basic information as the names of about 1,200 people who have been detained following the September 11 terrorist attacks, without success. In this context, the meetings about Justice and the Press in Washington, D.C., and Buenos Aires take on greater importance. At both meetings, judges of Supreme Court and journalists from throughout the hemisphere affirmed that press freedom and an independent judiciary are indispensable to one another. These principles guarantee the exercise of the people’s rights, which is what defines democracy.