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MEDIA
Everybody attacks freedom of expression at the Colombian armed conflict
The policy of the Uribe government of stigmatizing his opponents with strong declarations, of asking for the self-restriction of the media; the threatens of the violent characters, the concentration of the media and a series of subtle and direct pressures threaten the freedom of expression.
01/06/09
By Zuitáraiki/ Seinforma Canada
Bogota. - The political constitution of Colombia, in its article 20, establishes the right to freedom of expression, right that has become a challenge to exercise it completely in the country, due to multiple reasons such as the violent action that comes from legal and illegal characters that slow down the exercise of informing rigorously, even more in this nation that has been at war for over forty years. In here, the reporters are threatened by drug dealers, illegal armed groups, corrupt government and politicians.
The intimidations, forced exiles of journalists, subtle pressures of censorship coming from the state and its private associates, conduct the journalists to exercise self-restriction that reveals half truths or covers pieces of news in an incomplete or partial way, prevailing, like that, communication strategies that, instead of informing, they misinform or banalize reality.
In the recent months, various types of reports have been submitted before the International Community, which depict the situation of the freedom of expression in the world and in Colombia, country in which the Association for Civil Rights, in its report “The price of silence” (2008), found that there are practices being carried out in several regions of this nation which undermine the right of reporting and being informed.
One of the practices named in the report, consists of the request of publicity agreement to government employee, compromising situation to the independence of the media. On the other hand, several journalists from the print and broadcast media have minimum or no salaries at all, and by means of “cupos” that the media assign to them to sell to government entities or private companies, they improve their incomes, a problematic that joins the interest of the businessmen of communication of increasing their incomes.
In this regards, the interventions of 2005, 2006 and 2007 done for the same research, revealed that Alvaro Uribe’s Government privileged the newspaper “La República”, converted the government policies, “with regular and suspiciously raised advertising assignments” (page 11). The report also confirmed that the president or his Press secretary have called the directors of the media to interfere in the coverage of some issues (Page 12). From somewhere else many local public employees reduce or withhold advertisements to the media depending on the publication or not of information that is considered advisable or that the government likes. Likewise, the privilege to certain media was showed when the Minister of National Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, revealed a piece of news of general interest to just one agency, the magazine “Semana”, instead of calling for a press conference.
This report points out that the freedom of press has been affected by the delay in the assign of the licenses for the communal radio until last march was opened the tender after ten years of being approved the broadcasting policy (page 17).
Finally, the concentration of the power of the media in hands of the big global and/or national groups of communication has a negative impact on the exercise of the freedom of speech. According to the analyst María Teresa Herrán «the concentration of media without regulatory intervention of the State because of lack of political will from the current governments (whose campaigns are funded by the economic groups) has allowed in Colombia the owners of the media, the resources, the reporters, the public, and the State to avoid their responsibilities in relation to the right of inform, and these information to be more and more tied up to particular interests, so that the “fourth power” is a mere entelechy» 1 flattering of the statu quo.
The above-mentioned situation is constant in this South-American country. This way, the newspaper “El Tiempo”, the most popular one, belongs to “Grupo Planeta” from Spain and to the two biggest radio networks, Caracol that belong to the Spanish Grupo Prisa, and RCN Radio y TV from the group of Ardila Lulle, one of the wealthiest businessman of the country, together with Julio Mario Santo Domingo, this last group owns the newspaper El Espectador and the magazine Revista Cambio and the TV channel TV Caracol, among other media.
Armed conflict, corruption and press
Threatens to journalists and generators of opinions are systematic and constant from all the main fronts of violence in Colombia. Starting with the government itself 2 that by making stigmatizing statements in several opportunities against journalists has caused the forced exile from these. The most recent ones have been Daniel Coronel and Gonzalo Guillén. And it is that the policy of the government of Uribe has been the one of throwing strong pronunciation and pointing against the ones that show disagreement, oppose or defend the human rights.3
On the other hand, it is pointed out a constant call to the media for self-restriction 4, pressures that not only come from the Executive, but also from national or local public employees that approach the editors in chief so that they give permission to broadcast or give little informative depth to certain issues that are annoying for them or for the Government.
In this context of limitations to the exercise of freedom of press and speech, it is added the violence and threatens related to the armed conflict5 and the corruption, being the threaten to kill them the most frequent one against journalists, 38 cases during the first semester of the year 2008, according to the report from Association for the Freedom of Press (FLIP)6 . The issues on Parapolitics and political guerrilla warfare are the ones that generated the larger number of threats against the reporters.
All of these reasons, amongst others, put in question the so spread Colombian “Worsening of Democracy”, displayed by the national government in multiple national and international scenarios, which is, actually, a display of the negative impact of the Policy of Democratic Security in the Human Rights. This makes of Colombia a country with poor citizenship reported by receiving the news more and more misshaped.
Under the urgency of analyzing the situation of freedom of press in Colombia and “aware that the right to truthful information is one of the main rights of society and of a democracy aiming to be clear”, the group Maloka with the support of the Catalonian agency of cooperation and the Association of Journalists of Catalonia made the Seminar Freedom of Press and Conflict in Colombia during the days 20, 21 and 22 of November in the city of Barcelona, Spain.
In the seminar it was analyzed the situation of the freedom of press in Colombia from the question: Is there freedom of press in Colombia? and it discussed issues such as the covering of the conflict and the democratic security; the limits and implications of the journalistic research in that south American country; and it was also discussed the alternative and independent journalism, and the way in which the European media treat the Colombian conflict.
All of the subjects were discussed by Alfredo Molano Bravo, Colombian Sociologist and Columnist of the newspaper El Espectador in Colombia. Hollman Morris, journalist and director of the TV programme Contravía (Colombia); Ana Maria Ruiz, professor on the Faculty of Communication of the University Externado de Colombia; William Parra, Telesu correspondent; Paco Martin, member of the Association of Journalists of Catalonia; and Hernando Calvo Ospina, from Le Monde Diplomatique.
1. MASTRINI, Guillermo y BECERRA, Martín (Directors). Journalists and magnates. Structure and Concentration of the cultural industries in Latin-America. Institute Press and Society; Prometeo Libros. Buenos Aires, 2006
2. Annual report 2008 of Human Rights published by Human Rights Wach
3. Last 5th of may, the President of the Republic sent a letter to the newspaper El Espectador, declaring that this was revealing “slanderous information” as a consequence of a column of the Defender of Human Rights and columnist, Iván Cepeda, from whom he pointed out that “poses as a victim to the violation of Human Rights and in the practice is a real instigator to the violation of Human Rights”… (GALLON, Eduardo and ORJUELA, Astrid. Stigmatization of defenders: Risk for Democracy. In: Facts of the Alley. PNUD, No. 41 November 2008. Page 15)
4. Swedish Association for Human Rights. Freedom of Speech in Colombia. Violence, Impunity and Self-Restriction - a constructive research, November 2004
5. According to the report on the State of the Freedom of Press in Colombia published by FLIP, during the first three-month period of 2008, 63 cases of violation were shown, with a total of 74 victims a decrease of %27 compared to the previous year, but a bit superior to the year 2005 for the same period of time.
6. Some reports may be seen at: <http://www.fipcolombia.com/noticiasVer.php>
For more information: <http://www.colectivomaloka.org/agenda.php>
By Zuitáraiki/ Seinforma Canada
Bogota. - The political constitution of Colombia, in its article 20, establishes the right to freedom of expression, right that has become a challenge to exercise it completely in the country, due to multiple reasons such as the violent action that comes from legal and illegal characters that slow down the exercise of informing rigorously, even more in this nation that has been at war for over forty years. In here, the reporters are threatened by drug dealers, illegal armed groups, corrupt government and politicians.
The intimidations, forced exiles of journalists, subtle pressures of censorship coming from the state and its private associates, conduct the journalists to exercise self-restriction that reveals half truths or covers pieces of news in an incomplete or partial way, prevailing, like that, communication strategies that, instead of informing, they misinform or banalize reality.
In the recent months, various types of reports have been submitted before the International Community, which depict the situation of the freedom of expression in the world and in Colombia, country in which the Association for Civil Rights, in its report “The price of silence” (2008), found that there are practices being carried out in several regions of this nation which undermine the right of reporting and being informed.
One of the practices named in the report, consists of the request of publicity agreement to government employee, compromising situation to the independence of the media. On the other hand, several journalists from the print and broadcast media have minimum or no salaries at all, and by means of “cupos” that the media assign to them to sell to government entities or private companies, they improve their incomes, a problematic that joins the interest of the businessmen of communication of increasing their incomes.
In this regards, the interventions of 2005, 2006 and 2007 done for the same research, revealed that Alvaro Uribe’s Government privileged the newspaper “La República”, converted the government policies, “with regular and suspiciously raised advertising assignments” (page 11). The report also confirmed that the president or his Press secretary have called the directors of the media to interfere in the coverage of some issues (Page 12). From somewhere else many local public employees reduce or withhold advertisements to the media depending on the publication or not of information that is considered advisable or that the government likes. Likewise, the privilege to certain media was showed when the Minister of National Defense, Juan Manuel Santos, revealed a piece of news of general interest to just one agency, the magazine “Semana”, instead of calling for a press conference.
This report points out that the freedom of press has been affected by the delay in the assign of the licenses for the communal radio until last march was opened the tender after ten years of being approved the broadcasting policy (page 17).
Finally, the concentration of the power of the media in hands of the big global and/or national groups of communication has a negative impact on the exercise of the freedom of speech. According to the analyst María Teresa Herrán «the concentration of media without regulatory intervention of the State because of lack of political will from the current governments (whose campaigns are funded by the economic groups) has allowed in Colombia the owners of the media, the resources, the reporters, the public, and the State to avoid their responsibilities in relation to the right of inform, and these information to be more and more tied up to particular interests, so that the “fourth power” is a mere entelechy» 1 flattering of the statu quo.
The above-mentioned situation is constant in this South-American country. This way, the newspaper “El Tiempo”, the most popular one, belongs to “Grupo Planeta” from Spain and to the two biggest radio networks, Caracol that belong to the Spanish Grupo Prisa, and RCN Radio y TV from the group of Ardila Lulle, one of the wealthiest businessman of the country, together with Julio Mario Santo Domingo, this last group owns the newspaper El Espectador and the magazine Revista Cambio and the TV channel TV Caracol, among other media.
Armed conflict, corruption and press
Threatens to journalists and generators of opinions are systematic and constant from all the main fronts of violence in Colombia. Starting with the government itself 2 that by making stigmatizing statements in several opportunities against journalists has caused the forced exile from these. The most recent ones have been Daniel Coronel and Gonzalo Guillén. And it is that the policy of the government of Uribe has been the one of throwing strong pronunciation and pointing against the ones that show disagreement, oppose or defend the human rights.3
On the other hand, it is pointed out a constant call to the media for self-restriction 4, pressures that not only come from the Executive, but also from national or local public employees that approach the editors in chief so that they give permission to broadcast or give little informative depth to certain issues that are annoying for them or for the Government.
In this context of limitations to the exercise of freedom of press and speech, it is added the violence and threatens related to the armed conflict5 and the corruption, being the threaten to kill them the most frequent one against journalists, 38 cases during the first semester of the year 2008, according to the report from Association for the Freedom of Press (FLIP)6 . The issues on Parapolitics and political guerrilla warfare are the ones that generated the larger number of threats against the reporters.
All of these reasons, amongst others, put in question the so spread Colombian “Worsening of Democracy”, displayed by the national government in multiple national and international scenarios, which is, actually, a display of the negative impact of the Policy of Democratic Security in the Human Rights. This makes of Colombia a country with poor citizenship reported by receiving the news more and more misshaped.
Under the urgency of analyzing the situation of freedom of press in Colombia and “aware that the right to truthful information is one of the main rights of society and of a democracy aiming to be clear”, the group Maloka with the support of the Catalonian agency of cooperation and the Association of Journalists of Catalonia made the Seminar Freedom of Press and Conflict in Colombia during the days 20, 21 and 22 of November in the city of Barcelona, Spain.
In the seminar it was analyzed the situation of the freedom of press in Colombia from the question: Is there freedom of press in Colombia? and it discussed issues such as the covering of the conflict and the democratic security; the limits and implications of the journalistic research in that south American country; and it was also discussed the alternative and independent journalism, and the way in which the European media treat the Colombian conflict.
All of the subjects were discussed by Alfredo Molano Bravo, Colombian Sociologist and Columnist of the newspaper El Espectador in Colombia. Hollman Morris, journalist and director of the TV programme Contravía (Colombia); Ana Maria Ruiz, professor on the Faculty of Communication of the University Externado de Colombia; William Parra, Telesu correspondent; Paco Martin, member of the Association of Journalists of Catalonia; and Hernando Calvo Ospina, from Le Monde Diplomatique.
1. MASTRINI, Guillermo y BECERRA, Martín (Directors). Journalists and magnates. Structure and Concentration of the cultural industries in Latin-America. Institute Press and Society; Prometeo Libros. Buenos Aires, 2006
2. Annual report 2008 of Human Rights published by Human Rights Wach
3. Last 5th of may, the President of the Republic sent a letter to the newspaper El Espectador, declaring that this was revealing “slanderous information” as a consequence of a column of the Defender of Human Rights and columnist, Iván Cepeda, from whom he pointed out that “poses as a victim to the violation of Human Rights and in the practice is a real instigator to the violation of Human Rights”… (GALLON, Eduardo and ORJUELA, Astrid. Stigmatization of defenders: Risk for Democracy. In: Facts of the Alley. PNUD, No. 41 November 2008. Page 15)
4. Swedish Association for Human Rights. Freedom of Speech in Colombia. Violence, Impunity and Self-Restriction - a constructive research, November 2004
5. According to the report on the State of the Freedom of Press in Colombia published by FLIP, during the first three-month period of 2008, 63 cases of violation were shown, with a total of 74 victims a decrease of %27 compared to the previous year, but a bit superior to the year 2005 for the same period of time.
6. Some reports may be seen at: <http://www.fipcolombia.com/noticiasVer.php>
For more information: <http://www.colectivomaloka.org/agenda.php>
Threatens to journalists and other generators of opinions are systematic and constant from all the main fronts of violence in Colombia, included the government itself. (Photo Chris Bridwell-Flickr/Seinforma)
Godfather PLAN
This 31st of December of 2008 ends the campaign to contribute with this foundation that works for a better future for thousands of children in La Paz. Your donation will be highly appreciated.
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This 31st of December of 2008 ends the campaign to contribute with this foundation that works for a better future for thousands of children in La Paz. Your donation will be highly appreciated.
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