LATIN AMERICA PRESS FREEDOM SURVEY

By: Mark Fitzgerald A World Press Freedom Day Special Report



Here's a country-by-country look at recent developments affecting press
freedom in Latin America, based on the reports issued by the Inter
American Press Association at its midyear meeting in Cancun, Mexico:



Argentina

Free-press advocates cheered when a court on Feb. 2 imposed sentences
of life imprisonment on the murderer and five principal accomplices
convicted of the 1997 killing of Noticias photographer Jos? Luis
Cabezas. But the conviction has not stopped other acts of intimidation,
the latest a death threat to Frank Varise, a reporter for the Buenos
Aires newspaper La Naci?n who has been investigating alleged
police involvement with an organized crime gang specializing in cattle
rustling.



Brazil

Police and military security personnel have been involved in several
incidents of physical assaults on news photographers. Reporters on
Correio Popular, a daily in Campinas, near Sao P?ulo, have
stopped using bylines because of threats by drug traffickers. Congress,
meanwhile, is giving serious consideration to two wide-ranging gag
laws. One, proposed by the government, would prohibit police,
prosecutors, judges, and others from providing any information about
'investigations, actions, or trials' during legal proceedings. Another,
pushed by the judicial branch, would amend the constitution to ban
prosecutors and judges from providing information about court cases.



Colombia

The nation remains among the most dangerous in the world for working
journalists. The grim statistics continued growing even as IAPA was
issuing its report: a body found in an unmarked grave was identified
March 14 as radio reporter Maria Helena Salina, who had been missing
for a week while covering violence in the northwestern corner of the
country. She became the 150th journalist killed in Colombia during the
past 20 years.



Cuba

Harassment, intimidation, and jailing have worsened since the beginning
of the year. IAPA said Cuba has added a new tool of repression: 'A sort
of de facto house arrest that has been applied to more than 10
reporters just as they were about to cover events potentially
uncomfortable for the government.'



Ecuador

A campaign-finance law passed in late February permits the Electoral
Supreme Court to fine &3151; and even close down for six months - any
news organization that does not report within 30 days of an election
the amount of money parties have spent on political advertising.



Guatemala

A Mexican businessman who has helped new President Alfonso Portillo
with some $2.5 million in free advertising on his four TV stations and
21 radio outlets is leading a 'smear campaign' against independent
newspapers, especially the nation's biggest, Prensa Libre.


Haiti

No significant press violations have been reported during the recent
period of political calm, but President Ren? Preval disappointed an
IAPA delegation when he balked at signing the Declaration of
Chapultepec.



Mexico

Authorities appear to be dragging their feet in recent murder cases.
And protests from IAPA and Mexican newspapers, most notably the Reforma
group, convinced the government to back off its plan to designate the
state-owned news agency Notimex as the exclusive distributor of public-

sector advertising. Mexican papers said they feared the government
would use the monopoly to revive its old practice of withholding or
awarding advertising according to how closely a newspaper reflected the
official view of events.



Nicaragua

President Arnoldo Alem?n has adopted 'a policy of confrontation with
the national press,' IAPA said. In addition to constant criticism of
newspapers, especially La Prensa in Managua, Aleman's
administration has targeted tax audits at papers that offend the
government.



Panama

Panama at the end of last year eliminated most of the anti-press laws
adopted by authoritarian regimes, and President Mireya Moscoso signed
the Declaration of Chapultepec document for a free press in the
hemisphere.



Paraguay

Government officials and others have filed numerous legal actions
'clearly intended to silence journalists and the media,' IAPA said. In
perhaps the most notorious case, Osvaldo Dom?nguez Dibb, publisher of
the newspaper La Naci?n, was sentenced last September to four
months in prison or a $17,000 fine for 'defaming' a Supreme Court
justice in an article that discussed the Peruvian judicial system in
general terms. Dibb appealed, and, on Jan. 4, an appellate court
increased the sentence to nine months in jail or an $85,000 fine.



Peru

As he attempted to win an unprecedented third term in elections to be
held yesterday, President Alberto Fujimori turned up the heat on
independent news media. The daily El Comercio is under
government-inspired attacks from a state-run TV station and a judicial
challenge from a group of minority stockholders. A national press group
reported more than 100 attacks on journalists in the past few months,
almost all of them in the provinces.



Puerto Rico

Physical attacks against journalists are increasing. The Legislature is
considering laws that would bar access to information about government
contracts and the commonwealth's Bureau of Special Investigations. And
at a time when other countries are eliminating jail time for libel and
other journalistic 'crimes,' Puerto Rico is going in the opposite
direction. At the end of last year, Gov. Pedro Rossell? signed the
controversial Law 329, which increases penalties for 'criminal libel'
with punishments including up to six months' imprisonment.



Uruguay

'For the first time since democracy was restored in Uruguay, a
journalist was killed because of the views he expressed,' IAPA said,
referring to the murder of Julio C. Da Rosa, owner and director of a
small-town radio station. A former employee of the local municipal
council, blaming the station for his firing, fatally shot Da Rosa Feb.
24 and then killed himself.



Venezuela

Journalists fear censorship will be the inevitable result of the new
constitution created by allies of President Hugo Ch?vez and passed in a
referendum last December. The charter places many qualifications on the
press and states that 'the Law limits the use of computers to guarantee
the honor and personal and family privacy of citizens in full exercise
of their rights.' Ch?vez is proving no friend of journalists, whom he
described on his Sunday radio program as 'enemies of the revolution,
manipulators and propitiators of a campaign against the government.'