El Nuevo Dia settles suit vs. Puerto Rico gov.

By: Mark Fitzgerald Puerto Rican government advertising will begin running again in El Nuevo Dia next week - two years after the San Juan tabloid alleged the island's governor punished the paper for its investigative stories by pulling ads worth $6 million annually.
El Nuevo Dia reached a settlement May 11 in its federal lawsuit against Puerto Rican Gov. Pedro Rossell? and six other top officials. Under terms of the agreement, the government will begin publishing ads in El Nuevo Dia within 15 days and will schedule future media ads from its $30 million annual budget by using "objective criteria such as the cost per thousand readers reached," the newspaper says in a statement.
In its lawsuit filed Dec. 9, 1997, El Nuevo Dia contended Rossell? ordered 18 government agencies to pull their ads from El Nuevo Dia because he was angry about articles on alleged government corruption. In addition, the newspaper alleged the Rossell? administration also tried to punish the paper by shutting down construction projects that were contracted to Puerto Rico Cement, a company partly owned by the family that owns El Nuevo Dia.
"Since the 14th of April (1997), El Nuevo Dia has been subjected to a systematic campaign by the Rossell? administration to block our reporters from access to government news," the newspaper's president and editor, Antonio Luis Ferr?, said at the time the lawsuit was filed.
Under terms of the settlement, the construction projects will be restarted and El Nuevo Dia reporters will have equal access to public documents and news. For its part, the paper and the cement company agreed to drop its demand for unspecified millions of dollars in damages.
Rossell? denied the allegations in the lawsuit, saying the ads were pulled because the newspaper's rates were too high. At 200,000 circulation, El Nuevo Dia is the second-largest on the island, trailing only the 257,000-circulation El Vocero.
As part of the settlement, Rossell? on May 11 signed an executive order acknowledging that government advertising cannot be used "in reprisal for news coverage." Government ad expenditures must be based on objective criteria such as the reach and cost-efficiency of a particular media business, the order says.
In a statement, Rossell? says the settlement "puts our people's interest first." He says the administration has always supported freedom of the press "without reservation" and never tried to influence El Nuevo Dia's news coverage.
The lawsuit had damaged Rossell?'s reputation, however. In 1998, the Inter American Press Association sent a study group to investigate El Nuevo Dia's charges. During a televised interview, Rossell? ended up in a shouting match with one IAPA delegate. The group later concluded the Rossell? administration had engaged in "a pattern of coercion and harassment" against reporters, especially those from El Nuevo Dia.
El Nuevo Dia president and editor Ferr? says the newspaper settlement achieves what the newspaper wanted from its lawsuit.
"This agreement represents a victory not only for the press and the public, but for our democracy," Ferr? writes in an editorial that ran May 12. "As a result of this agreement and the precedent it sets, freedom of the press is reinforced. We are confident future governors will abstain from making decisions that affect one of the pillars of our democracy ... We're particularly proud that the executive order reduces the risk that whoever the governor may be will try to gag, pressure, or influence the news media by using the government advertising budget."
Ferr? says more than the newspaper and his family businesses were harmed by the administration's actions.
"For the space of more than two years, millions of daily readers of El Nuevo Dia did not have access to [government] information," he writes.
"All because the government didn't agree with the news published in this paper."
The settlement came just days before the scheduled start of the trial in U.S. District Court in San Juan. Federal judge Jos? A. Fust? had urged both sides to settle, and negotiations had been going on since January, the newspaper reported.
In addition to Gov. Rossell?, the El Nuevo Dia lawsuit named as defendants Government Secretary Angel Morey; Secretary of State Norma Burgos; Press Secretary Pedro Rosario Urdaz; and two other government officials.

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