in Venezuela and Cuba
CHRISTOPHER TOOTHAKER Associated Press Writer
March 21, 2010 | 2:43 p.m.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Press freedoms in countries throughout the
Western Hemisphere are facing serious threats from authoritarian
governments, especially in Venezuela and communist-led Cuba, a group
representing news media from across the Americas warned Sunday.
Alejandro Aguirre, president of the Inter American Press Association,
singled out Cuba as the region's the worst offender against press freedom.
"The most worrisome case continues to be the case of Cuba, where a
dictatorship that has lasted nearly half a century has not allowed a
minimum of freedom of expression or free press," Aguirre said in a
telephone interview from the Caribbean island of Aruba.
The Miami-based IAPA, which includes 1,380 publications from throughout
the Western Hemisphere, is discussing what it considers a host of
threats to freedom of expression emerging across the region during a
meeting in Aruba. The meeting ends on Monday.
Aguirre also condemned what he called efforts by President Hugo Chavez
to silence media critics in Venezuela.
Chavez "has used all the government's tools to close and antagonize the
media — doing everything possible so that the flow of information in
Venezuela is dictated by the government," said Aguirre, executive
director of the Miami-based Diario de Las Americas.
Chavez's administration revoked the licenses of 34 radio stations last
year, saying most of them failed to update their registrations or
allowed their concessions to expire. Officials have said dozens of other
broadcasters could also lose their licenses.
In January, Venezuela's state-run telecommunications regulator ordered
local cable companies to drop RCTV — an anti-Chavez TV channel — because
the network allegedly defied new rules requiring cable channels to carry
mandatory government programming, including some of Chavez's speeches.
Chavez denies attempting to silence his critics. The former paratroop
commander has repeatedly rejected the IAPA's criticisms in the past,
calling the organization a pawn of the "empire," a reference to the U.S.
government.
David Natera, who heads Venezuela's largest association of newspapers,
accused Chavez's government of starving newspapers of revenue from
public advertising by steering that to pro-Chavez media.
"He's not closing newspapers, but he's strangling them financially,"
said Natera, owner and publisher of the Venezuelan newspaper Correo de
Caroni.
The IAPA is also increasingly concerned that democratically elected
leaders in countries such as Nicaragua, Ecuador and Bolivia appear to be
following Chavez's example by cracking down on critical media outlets.
Violence against journalists is reaching alarming levels in Mexico,
where four journalists have been slain so far this year. The IAPA claims
a fifth was recently killed in the border city of Reynosa, but media
outlets there were too afraid to file a police report. Twelve reporters
were killed in Mexico in 2009.
Critics have accused Mexican authorities of not doing enough to stop
such attacks — some of which are linked to Mexico's violent drug gangs.
The press association said the lack of justice in crimes against
reporters is increasingly driving journalists in Mexico to self-censorship.
In Haiti, the IAPA said the devastating Jan. 12 earthquake crippled the
media by destroying outlets' offices, shutting down businesses that
provided advertising revenue and killing 31 journalists. In
Port-au-Prince, only about a dozen radio stations out of 50 remain on
the air.
The report said the damage to the industry has dramatically limited the
dissemination of important humanitarian information, especially to
people migrating in and outside the capital.
The editors of two Haitian papers, Le Nouvelliste and Le Matin, pleaded
for help, including printing and training for reporters, from their IAPA
colleagues.
Le Nouvelliste is down to publishing twice a week, instead of daily, and
has shrunk from a staff of 150 to 40. Le Matin now prints in the
Dominican Republic and has cut salaries by 50 percent.
"In 35 seconds the news media lost more reporters than in the last 35
years," said Max Chauvet, editor of Le Nouvelliste, now down to
publishing twice a week instead of daily. "The Haitian press has been
crippled, crippled."
_____
Associated Press writer Ed McCullough contributed to this report from
Oranjestad, Aruba.
___
On the Internet:
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-lt-latam-media-attacks,0,3742940.story
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