Press advocacy group outlines
assaults on the American press


The Inter American Press Association outlined a troubling litany of affronts to press freedom Tuesday.

The press advocacy organization held its annual meeting in Denver, Colorado.  Its 69th General Assembly evaluated and approved its conclusions on the state of press freedom in the Western Hemisphere.

The organization said that 14 journalists have been killed in Latin America in the past six months, a toll that ranks among the highest in the last 20 years. It also cited the greatest obstacles to press freedom, the secret seizure of the telephone records of Associated Press reporters by the U.S. Justice Department, the acquisition of media outlets by autocratic governments, the passage of a troubling communication law in Ecuador, and the persistent lack of access to public information in a number of countries.

The organization condemned the 14 killings.  There were three in Mexico, two in Brazil, two in Colombia, two in Guatemala, two in Haiti and one each in Ecuador, Honduras and Paraguay. It also and strenuously criticized the expiration of the statute of limitations for 17 killings of journalists (five in Colombia and 12 in Mexico), as impunity and a weak or subservient judiciary are the driving forces behind the violence.

Also during this six-month period, three journalists were forced to leave their respective countries (two from Colombia and one from Honduras), and two foreign correspondents were expelled by the Nicaraguan government.

The organization said it shares the concern of like-minded organizations in the United States over the direction of press freedom  there, which has been shaken by revelations of spying on journalists and others. This concern was voiced by Gary Pruitt, president of The Associated Press, who described for the General Assembly how fear of government surveillance has led some of the news agency’s sources to engage in self-censorship.

The organization noted that the U.S. Congress remains reluctant to pass a law to protect the confidential nature of sources — one that would prevent journalists from ending up behind bars — and urged the State Department to fully comply with the recommendations submitted by its delegation that visited Washington, D.C., earlier this year.

The Inter American Press Association also expressed its concern over limited access to public information, which continues to hinder the pursuit of journalism in countries such as Ecuador, Honduras, El Salvador, Panamá, Uruguay and Venezuela, among others. Some countries, meanwhile, lack laws on access to information, with a prevailing culture of government secrecy in which, for example, presidents and public officials in Argentina, Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua, Panamá and Venezuela refuse to grant interviews or hold press conferences, it said.

In addition, press freedom was adversely affected during these last six months by various forms of economic coercion, such as the mass-scale acquisition of media outlets by governments, either directly or through persons tied to them, in Nicaragua, Venezuela, Bolivia and Argentina for the purpose of turning them not into public-service media outlets, but into tools of partisan and ideological propaganda, the organization said. This coercion is also on display in discriminatory patterns in the placement of government advertising in independent media outlets, it added.

In Venezuela, the government’s discriminatory actions go so far as to include the refusal to authorize foreign currency for the importation of supplies not manufactured in the country, such as newsprint, the organization said. In Argentina, the government pressured advertisers to cause financial harm to such outlets, it added. Another restrictive measure in Argentina, the media law, is now before the supreme court, which may issue a ruling that reflects relevant international standards, it noted.

Meanwhile, countries such as Colombia, Panamá and Brazil, among others, have seen a burgeoning industry of trials and lawsuits as a means of harassing the media, it said.

Ecuador is the scene of the harshest form of censorship, the organization said. Set to go into effect June 25, the communication law will create two government bodies, a council and a superintendency, that will serve to control and censor media content, in addition to compelling media outlets to regulate themselves.

In Cuba, as Yoani Sánchez, the celebrated blogger, described, economic reforms have not been accompanied by improvements in press freedom. On the contrary, the situation has been exacerbated by constant repression and arbitrary detentions of journalists, the Inter American Press Association said.

The General Assembly repeatedly emphasized the need to confront the governments of Bolivia, Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela— members of the Bolivarian Alliance for the Peoples of Our Americas,  called ALBA, — in their determination to weaken the inter-American human rights system, in particular the Office of Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which is the constant target of its attacks, the organization said.

Editor's note: A.M. Costa Rica is a member of the Inter American Press Association.


Study outlines subtle control
exercised by Beijing officials


Chinese Communist Party media controls are increasingly constraining news outlets based outside China. This is the key finding of a report released Tuesday, authored by Freedom House research analyst Sarah Cook and published by the Center for International Media Assistance at the National Endowment for Democracy.

“The dynamics are subtle, but the reality is that the China Factor exists in newsrooms around the world, be they internationally renowned outlets such as The New York Times and Bloomberg, a local newspaper in Nepal, or a Chinese radio station in Los Angeles,” said Ms. Cook. “The Chinese government’s efforts to influence reporting by foreign and overseas Chinese news outlets have intensified and expanded over the past five years.”

The new report, "The Long Shadow of Chinese Censorship: How Chinese Media Restrictions Affect News Outlets around the World," examines this phenomenon across foreign and Chinese-language media outlets based outside mainland China and that reach audiences worldwide.

The study finds that Chinese officials have directly impeded independent reporting by media based abroad, barring foreign correspondents from sites of important incidents or pressuring senior executives not to publish content deemed politically undesirable to the regime.

According to the study, the content targeted for censorship includes topics that may have global implications, such as human rights abuses, high-level corruption, and environmental pollution. Most frequently targeted are reports that touch hot button issues like the persecution of Tibetans, Uighurs, and Falun Gong practitioners, as well as Chinese-language commentary challenging the legitimacy of one-party rule, it said.


Dance and piano show
will be a fund-raiser


Pianist Mauricio Fernández and more than 20 dancers from the  Academia Danzay will share the stage Saturday at the Teatro Eugene O´Neill in Los Yoses at the Centro Cultural Costarricense Norteamericano.

The performances begin at 7 p.m., and admission is 10,000 colons.

The dancers will perform an excerpt from "The Carnival of the Animals" by Camille Saint-Saëns as well as group and solo interpretations of classical ballet.

Fernández will present classical works. He organized the program to raise funds for travel to Virginia's George Mason University in January were he will study for a master's degree in piano. He was graduated by Universidad Nacional.

Dancing will be his sister, Mariana Fernández, who is with the Danzay company.


Alajuela closes the season
with composer and singer


The  Teatro al Mediodía in Alajuela ends the season Thursday with  Max Goldemberg, a composer, guitarists and singer. He calls his works new Guanacaste songs.  The presentation is called "Tierra seca," in which the singer will address social themes and respect for the environment.


The performance is at Museo Histórico Cultural Juan Santamaría, and admission is 1,000 colons. Despite the name, the show actually will begin at 12:10 p.m.

The museum said that 2,338  persons attended so far this year for 31 different shows this season and that the noon performances will continue next year, which will be the fifth.