PRESS FREEDOM FADING IN LATIN COUNTRIES

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP88-01314R000300540003-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 2
• Document Creation Date: December 15, 2016
• Document Release Date: August 26, 2004
• Sequence Number: 3
• Publication Date: November 1, 1969
• Content Type: NSPR

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Press freedom fading hi. Latin WASHINGTON anyone with a dissent to ex- permit the magazines to resume legality of press laws but none
The delegates to the 25th an- press, no matter how wild or ir- publication.
nual assembly of the Inter responsible, would have to be Argentine newspapers, La lion of a freeep esste suppres
American Press Association were given space," Beebe said. Prensa and La Nacion, print A major project of thi
told there is less free press in He also cited government ac- editorials critical of the gov- IAPA's Freedom of the Pres;
the Americas today than there tions against newspapers that ernment and there has been no Committee is to get these re
was in 1950. They were also "are forced to pool their produc- direct action against them. pressive press laws repealed of
told, however, that in the tion and commercial operations O'Rourke told the president that modified. Harris reported sue,
United States 1969 has been a to save a second paper from go- whether or not there was a free cess in some instances, one be.
year of diminishing threats to ing out of business,"noting'that press in Argentina was "debat- ing in the Bahamas where ar
press freedom. Congress was still trying to de- able," citing a resolution by objectionable part of the Power.
Some 500 representatives of cide whether these agreements ADEPA (Argentine Publish- and Privileges Act was taken
Western Hemisphere news- would be exempted from the ers' Association) which asserted out of the law. The publisher of
papers were present at the antitrust laws. an
-Lu
t
Freedom of The Press, the first Beebe reported that there had
session on the program. They been a "definite improvement"
heard Tom S. Harris of El in the credibility gap in the
hlu.udo, San Juan, Puerto Rico, Nixon Administration over that
proclaini. of President Johnson, but said
"Eight nations and more than there had been frustration in
half the population of Latin newsgathering in several gov-
America are now under some ernment areas, particularly the
form of military government Pentagon.
and press freedom has disap=
peared in each in varying de- Constant challenge
grees from a total blackout to
spasmodic censorship."
More than one out of every
two citizens of Latin America,
Ilarris said, has been denied
the right to read news and com-
ment about their government.
Since the IAPA met in Buenos
Aires a year ago, Harris said,
the Association has filed 37 pro-
tests to violations of freedom
of the ;press, "an all time high
record for this committee."
Fourteen of these protests
went to the president or the
ruling military junta of Bra-
zil; three to Peru, three to
Paraguay, four to Argentina,
"So there is a constant chal-
lenge in a year when the hori-
zon is brighter, at least tempo-
rarily," Beebe said. One hopeful
sign he noted was that in the
emotional debate over coverage
of crime news, a truce has been
achieved, indicating that "the
long conflict" between the press,
the American Bar Association
and some judges and prose-
cutors appeared to be giving
way to "calmness and a sense
of reason."
A detailed report on the situ-
ation in Argentina was given
by John T. O'Rourke, retired
five to Panama, two to Uruguay, Scripps-Howard 'editor, who
and one each to St. Kitts, Bar- went to Buenos Aires at the
bados, the Bahamas, Mexico, request of Robert U. Brown,
El Salvador and Curacao. executive chairman of the
I
Status of press freedom
The opening session heard re-
ports on the status of press
freedom in each of the Western
Hemisphere countries.
The report on the United
States was given by George
Beebe of the Miami Herald.
He said that while editors ex-
pressed gratification over the
diminishing threats to press
freedom, some publishers
"voiced alarm over what they
consider increasing government-
al challenges of their business
practices."
Among the "challenges" Bee-
be cited were the statements of
Kenneth A. Cox of the Federa-
al Communications Commission
that newspapers should be
forced to give politicians "equal
time" or space in the news col-
umns.
APA, to interview President
Juan Carlos Ongania regarding
the closing of several Argentine
magazines. The magazines were
closed by decree under a state
of seige declared by the govern-
ment during violence and labor
strife in Rosario, Cordoba and
elsewhere.
President Ongania said he
had closed the magazines be-
cause they were subversive, be-
cause they printed what was not
true. When O'Rourke pointed
out that a report could be false
and yet not subversive, Ongania
insisted that what the magazines
had printed disrupted and dis-
turbed the government and that
anything that tended to disturb
the stability of the government
could only benefit the Com-
munists and whatever did that
was subversive.
No direct action
"Thus a federal agency would On a is re
be designated to st glprrvt Fj9 O4 &
- ,
press 'and make certain that he lift the state
e
gen
ina now. Ongania replied delegates, however, that the
that there was a free press in government hampered his news-
Argentina and said the fact paper by usin
the i
i
g
mm
gration
that ADEPA's resolution was laws to exclude persons he de-
widely publicized proved it, but sired to bring in as additions to
whether or not there was a his staff.
free press, he was not going Harris reported that in Pana-
to permit subversion. ma the military president had
Mar.ocl F.Do Nascimento reopened the closed newspapers
Brito of Journal do Brasil, Rio "but with a long string," which
de Janeiro, presented a report was that the government as-
on Brazil. He said that although sumed the right to approve the
the press in Brazil had not editors. The situation in Pana-
.sufl?ered any perceptible modi- ma is "still bleak," Harris said,
fication of restrictions on press and the IAPA is fighting a gov-
freedom in recent months, there ernment plan to draft a press
was evidence of tendencies to- law which would be restrictive
ward a gradual improvement. to a fully free press.
The press law enacted during Harris reported that the situ-
the administration of. President ation in Cuba had further de-
Castello Branco, is still in force teriorated when Fidel Castro
and is extremely severe on "so- closed down the offices of the
called crimes committed by the Associated Press and United
"
press
but there is no regime of
prior censorship.
"Editors can make up their
newspapers as they please," M.
de Nascimento Brito said, "but
the authorities sometimes con-
sider the propriety of publish-
ing certain pieces of news, par-
ticularly when the political
crisis becomes more acute." The
insecurity of an arbitrary re-
gime under which elementary
judicial remedies such as the
habeas corpus do not exist
obliges the newspapers to be very
careful with regard to layout,
newscasting and suppression of
opinion to ' avoid seizure of
editions.
The hopeful factor in the
Brazilian situation, M.de Nas-
cimento Brito said, was the
statement of the new president
of his intentions to fully re-
store Brazilian democracy, and
reestablishing freedom of the
press had "roused new hopes
in journalistic circles." Al-
though there is still no freedom
of the press in Brazil, he said,
"the skies are lightening."
Press International so that now
there was a total suppression
of press freedom. In Haiti a com-
plete blackout of press free-
dom has existed since Papa Doc
Duvalier elected himself presi-
dent for life.
The IAPA was disturbed by
recent reports from Chile that
the government had invoked in-
ternal security laws during a
military disturbance, and had
confiscated editions of El Diario
Ilustrado, had arrested the edi-
tor of La Segunda of Santiago,
and applied prior censorship to
Fl Mercurio before releasing its
editions. IAPA will urge Presi-
dent Frei and the Chilean Con-
gress to revise the security law
and omit provisions affecting
press freedom.
Reporting on conditions in
the Leeward Islands, Tom Sheri-
dan of the Daily Gleaner, Kings-
ton, Jamaica, said that there
was freedom of the press in
Bermuda, Jamaica, Surinam,
Guiana and other areas, but his
statements that the press was
free in the Netherlands East
Modification sought Indies were disputed by G. J.
Schouten, editor of The News
Delegates from almost all of on the Island of Aruba, and
the Latin American nations Harris stated in his report that
expressed grave concern of ar- this was an area to be watched.
}tt } M, T ero were some lively e
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 tral American couiAprovetdsFor Release 2004/09/03 CIA-RDP88-01314R000300540003-1
stated that there was freedom
of the press in Mexico and in
Guatemala and El Salvador but
a publisher from Honduras said
the military authorities had
tried to censor his newspaper.
There has been no trouble in
Colombia, and in the Dominican
Republic there are no restric-
tions on the press, it was stated,
beyond the, law on expression
of opinion which is similar to
libel laws in the United States.
When a delegate from Para-
guay said that there was "rela-
tive freedom of the press" in
that country, German E. Ornes
of Santo Domingo asked how
there could be any such thing
as "relative" freedom. The
Paraguayan replied that not all
countries had reached the same
level of appreciation of press
freedom and it could be partial
in some countries. Paraguay
had enacted a press law after
the disorders following the visit
of Governor Nelson Rockefeller
and this law limited press free-
dom but did not entirely abolish
it.
Harris asserted that assaults
on the free press, especially
during the past year, had come
from a "new breed of military
dictatorship which believes that
it alone can solve the social,
economic and political problems
that beset its people in a par-
ticular country." But they make
the fatal error, he, said, when
they stifle the press. Even "to-
day's sophisticated dictatorial
,governments have not learned,"
he said, that the solution of the
country's problems cannot be
achieved without the help of in-
formed citizens.
Approved For Release 2004/09/03 : CIA-RDP88-01314R000300540003-1