THE OPPENHEIMER REPORT
Region silent amid attacks on the media
BY ANDRES OPPENHEIMER
aoppenheimer@MiamiHerald.com
Here's the most immediate threat to democracy in the Americas: a
concerted move by authoritarian leaders to silence independent media
throughout the region.
Ecuador's President Rafael Correa, a disciple of Venezuelan President
Hugo Chávez, said that when he takes over as president of the 12-nation
Union of South American Nations (UNASUR) in July he will propose
creation of a regional body to defend governments against critics in the
media.
I'm not kidding. In what would be seen as a bizarre attack on basic
freedoms in most modern democracies, Correa's May 28 statement called
for ''creation of mechanisms to defend citizens and legitimately elected
governments against abuses by the press.'' The proposal was immediately
backed by Venezuela and Bolivia, whose presidents routinely refer to any
criticism in the press as ``media terrorism.''
What's worse, the three countries' move to demand harsher penalties
against independent media comes at a time when Correa is using legal
shenanigans to close down his country's Teleamazonas television network,
and as Chávez has publicly ordered his Cabinet ministers to shut down
Globovisión, the most courageous television station in Venezuela. Chávez
already shut down RCTV, Venezuela's oldest television network, in 2007.
During his May 30 weekly radio address, Correa said he would take legal
action to ''finish now with the corrupt press.'' Hours later, Ecuador's
National Council of Telecommunications, CONARTEL, upheld a $20 sanction
against Teleamazonas for airing images of a bullfight on Feb. 17 during
the 6 am to 9 pm slot in which bullfight broadcasts are forbidden. A
second violation -- no matter how innocent -- could lead to the
station's 90-day suspension, and the third one to the station's closing,
according to Ecuador's laws.
In Venezuela, Chávez demanded May 28 that the attorney general and the
public works minister ''take action'' against Globovisión, or resign
from their posts. The Chávez government has opened an investigation into
Globovisión for allegedly ''inciting panic'' in the population by
scooping government networks with a May 4 report on an earthquake in
Caracas.
Globovisión was the first to report -- accurately -- that the earthquake
was of a 5.4 magnitude.
Carlos Lauría, Latin America's director for the New York-based Committee
to Protect Journalists (of which, in the interest of full disclosure,
I'm a board member) told me that most other governments are mum about
these attacks on the media.
``It's astonishing that, at the June 2 Organization of American States
annual meeting, they spent their time talking about Cuba's readmission,
and I didn't hear of anyone talking about government attacks on the
press that are going on right now in Venezuela, Ecuador and other
countries.''
In a joint statement in late May, the semi-autonomous Rapporteurs for
Freedom of Expression from the United Nations and the OAS expressed
their ''concern'' over Venezuelan government statements that they said
``generate an atmosphere of intimidation in which the right to freedom
of expression is seriously limited.''
Asked about Correa's latest proposal to create a regional mechanism to
defend governments against independent media, OAS Special Rapporteur
Catalina Botero told me, ``I'm not aware of the details of the proposal.
But what we think is mostly needed is to strengthen those institutions
that defend freedom of expression from governments, not the other way
around.''
My opinion: I couldn't agree more. What's most daunting about the latest
attacks on the media is not that the narcissist-Leninist presidents of
Ecuador and Venezuela are trying to silence independent media -- after
all, they need a controlled press to fulfill their goals of becoming
presidents for life -- but the fact that leading democracies in the
region are not sounding the alarm. They should be raising hell.
According to the 2001 OAS Democratic Charter, the group's 34 member
countries have ''an obligation to promote and defend'' democracy,
including freedom of the press.
Yet where's the outcry over the latest attacks on the media? I haven't
seen a regional outrage at the bizarre idea of creating a regional body
to silence independent media, or at the latest threats to shut down
Teleamazonas and Globovisión, much like Venezuela's RCTV was taken off
the air two years ago.
If the region's leading democracies remain mum, they will be
contributing to the growing perception that inter-American treaties
calling for the collective defense of fundamental freedoms are a joke.
And they will be digging their own graves.
Region silent amid attacks on the media - Columnists - MiamiHerald.com
(11 June 2009)
http://www.miamiherald.com/opinion/columnists/story/1091665.html
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