Washington -- Desacato
or “insult” laws, which have been used to punish
journalists for challenging their country’s leaders,
have been part of the criminal code in most Latin American
nations since their independence in the 19th century. Now,
with most of the region enjoying greater freedom of expression,
enforcement of the laws largely has stopped.
However, the need for their permanent removal
is reinforced by the example of President Hugo Chavez’s
administration, where the Venezuelan state has been using
desacato laws to jail, silence and intimidate journalists,
and even has enacted further measures to stifle the media’s
ability to convey perspectives to the Venezuelan people
that differ from those of the regime.
“These laws have intimidated journalists,”
said Alfredo Ravell, director of Venezuela’s Globovision
Television Network. He told USINFO that with the constant
threat of state sanctions, journalists in his country tend
to practice self-censorship lest they report information
that could raise the ire of those in power.
“Cases of corruption or those in which
public officials are directly or indirectly criticized are
the ones of more concern for journalists, who feel their
reports could bring accusations for desacato,”
Ravell said.
CRACKDOWN ON RCTV AN OMINOUS PRECEDENT
The risks faced by Venezuelan journalists
have a clear example in case of RCTV, which will be effectively
silenced May 27 due to the Chavez regime’s refusal
to renew its broadcasting license. The television network
has been one of the few to express critical editorial opinions
and present information that differs from the official state
position.
Ravell considers the treatment of RCTV an
ominous sign for the future of press freedom in Venezuela.
“[G]overnment spokespeople constantly
mention measures against media outlets who are ‘enemies
of the revolution’ or ‘imperialists’ and
so on ... and that suggests that after RCTV, attacks against
other media will follow,” he said.
Globovision, is facing increased pressure
from the regime and its journalists also have been the target
of violent attacks over the past few years, including during
Venezuela’s recent election campaign, Ravell said.
Desacato laws also were used by
the Chavez government in 2006 to reopen criminal proceedings
against journalist Napoleón Bravo on charges that
he defamed the country’s Supreme Tribunal of Justice.
In its 2006 report on the state of freedom of expression
in the Western Hemisphere, the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights, an autonomous organ of the Organization
of American States, said Venezuela has used desacato
laws to prosecute reporter Gustavo Azócar and the
editor of El Siglo newspaper, Mireya Zurita.
LAWS “BELONG TO A DIFFERENT ERA”
Michael Shifter, vice president for policy
at the Inter-American Dialogue, a nongovernmental policy
research group, told USINFO the Venezuelan government points
to the existence of desacato laws in neighboring
nations as justification for its own practices, regardless
of the fact that those laws normally are not applied today.
Shifter says their presence on the books
remains a concern simply because as long as they are there,
“they can be triggered or invoked arbitrarily.”
“I think it is very important to overturn
those laws because they belong to a different era and I
think at least most of Latin America has gone beyond that
and I think it’s important to make the changes in
the legal framework as well,” he said.
The case of Costa Rican journalist Mauricio
Herrera Ulloa, who wrote for the San José-based daily
La Nación, is example of a more positive
direction Latin American nations are taking with regard
to desacato laws.
Herrera was convicted of criminal defamation
in 1999. But in 2004, the Costa Rica-based Inter-American
Court of Human Rights ordered the Costa Rican government
to void his conviction and pay him $20,000 in damages and
$10,000 in legal fees, ruling that the sentence had harmed
Herrera’s professional and personal life and violated
his right to freedom of expression.
Eduardo Ulibarri, former director of La
Nación, told USINFO the ruling “has brought
about more flexibility to the judicial decisions of many
courts and has also raised awareness, especially amongst
journalists and defense attorneys, that one can cite the
rules and jurisprudence of the Inter-American human rights
system in a case.”
Shifter said the Herrera case was “an
extremely important precedent,” and he also cited
an opinion by the Inter-American Court of Human Rights on
the 1988 conviction of Argentinian journalist Horacio Verbitsky
that led Argentina to nullify its desacato laws
in 1995.
“I think that there has been a generally
positive trend in the region that’s accompanied the
growth of democracy,” Shifter said, arguing that globalization
and economic development, accompanied by greater technology
and access to information, are contributing to a broader
consciousness and awareness of the need for a free press.
He added that even governments that grudgingly
are allowing greater press freedoms nevertheless “tend
to recognize that this is a reality and this is part of
what democracy is all about.”
VENEZUELA OUT OF STEP WITH THE REGION
Yet, Shifter said that when considering
the wider region, the case of Venezuela “is the most
problematic and goes against the current.” He said
that although it is still possible to find media critical
of the Chavez regime inside the country, this is partly
because the government has not yet gained complete control
over all media outlets, as is the case in Cuba.
Besides the enforcement of desacato
laws, Venezuela is enacting additional restrictions.
The Venezuelan government also has required
the broadcast of programs from its Ministry of Communications
and has empowered itself to interrupt regular TV and radio
station programs without prior warning to present messages.
Freedom of expression in Venezuela “has
suffered an obvious damage,” Ravell said
For more information, see Freedom
of the Press.
Stephen Kaufman
USINFO Staff Writer
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