IAPA discusses corruptionamong journalists p.

By: Robert U. Brown

THE CORRUPTION OF some journalists and editors in this hemisphere involving payoffs from government offices and officials has been widely known but rarely mentioned in reports of organizations such as the Inter America Press Association.
Eduardo Ulibarri, La Naci?n, San Jose, Costa Rica, broke with this tradition in his opening remarks as chairman of the Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information.
"To the picture of threats to press freedom we also must add a practice that disgracefully has existed for years in several countries," he said, "but which in recent months was stripped of its mask in two of them. I refer to the corruption of journalists and media by official or private interests."
In early January in Honduras, "the newspaper Tiempo published the names of 13 reporters from various media who had been paid by the National Elections Court 'for professional publicity services during the election campaign.'
"The commotion raised by the publication of the names showed several things: First, that other Honduran public entities, including the armed forces, had regularly used similar procedures; second, that many journalists looked on it as something normal; third, that some publishers and media owners, aware of these practices, had done nothing to stop them. A fourth element arose on the hopeful side: Most Honduran journalists and news executives reacted with shame and zeal for rectifying the situation following the disclosures.
"In Mexico, the disclosure came from the government. At the end of last year, the president's office decided to bill the media for the costs of traveling on presidential trips. Weeks later, the government demanded that all public offices cease the payment of so-called igualas?undeclared payoffs to many of the journalists covering government offices.
"The measures were welcomed by independent journalists and media, but there were also many complaints from complacent media and journalists under the influence of government power.
"These two cases have had the virtue of bringing to light something that for some time has been covered up.
"It also showed the obvious: For every public official who promotes corruption, there must be at least one news medium and one journalist that accepts it."
IAPA president Alejandro Junco de la Vega gave an "assist" to Ulibarri on this issue in his opening remarks. Some journalists, he said, insist "on their need to receive government assistance to keep their publications going. They admitted to changing their editorial line according to whether or not they received official advertising or government financial assistance.
"It now seems virtually normal that the advertising budgets at several levels of government and political parties are used to award the docile journalist, punish the rebel and to distribute public money in this arbitrary fashion.
"The IAPA believes that the first step toward liberty is autonomy. It is unacceptable that a publishing house depend on government subsidies, operate under a system of bribes and auction off editorial policy as if the newsroom were a Persian market."