Americas

  

INDEPENDENT NEWSPAPER THREATENED BY LEGAL ACTION

New York, March 17, 2000 — CPJ is deeply concerned by the legal action currently being brought against the Lima-based newspaper, El Comercio, which threatens to transfer ownership of the paper to its minority shareholders. El Comercio is charged with the misuse of government-provided funds. The paper is also being sued by its former general…

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EDITOR FORCED INTO EXILE AFTER AVOIDING ASSASSINATION ATTEMPT

New York, March 14, 2000 — Francisco “Pacho” Santos Calderón, editor of Colombia’s largest daily newspaper, El Tiempo, fled the country on March 11 after an apparent attempt was made on his life. According to one of Santos’ colleagues, the assassins were hired by members of the left-wing Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC), Colombia’s…

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Another jail sentence for Singares

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in PANAMA New York, August 3, 2000 — Carlos Singares, editor of the Panama City-based daily El Siglo, is currently serving an eight-day prison sentence for “disrespect” of the attorney general. Yesterday, an appeals court confirmed a 20-month prison sentence against him for having allegedly defamed…

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New law restricts access to information

Click here to read more about press freedom conditions in PANAMA New York, August 3, 2000 — Eleven months after pledging to eliminate Panama’s notorious “gag laws,” President Mireya Moscoso has signed a bill that sharply restricts public access to information. The new law broadens official definitions of privacy and confidentiality and applies harsh sanctions…

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Uruguay: Former official kills journalist, self

New York, March 8, 2000 — CPJ is deeply saddened by the February 24 murder of Uruguayan journalist Julio César Da Rosa, owner and editor of the independent station Radio del Centro, by former local official Nery Colombo, who shot the journalist and then killed himself. Radio del Centro broadcasts from Baltasar Brum, an isolated…

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Peru: Radio station owner threatened

New York, March 7, 2000 — CPJ is troubled by threats against Ricardo Palma Michelsen, owner of the Lima station Radio Miraflores. Palma was first threatened after a January 8 broadcast in which journalist Oscar Díaz interviewed ex-president Alan García Pérez and Baruch Ivcher, former owner of the television station Frecuencia Latina-Canal 2. Ivcher was…

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Mexico: U.S. authorities arrest two men linked to publisher’s murder

New York, Feb. 28, 2000–Federal agents in Yuma, Arizona, have arrested two brothers charged in the 1997 murder of Mexican newspaper publisher Benjamín Flores González. According to The Arizona Daily Star, Ismael and Gabriel González Gutiérrez were arrested on drug trafficking charges on February 24, following their indictment in Phoenix on February 9. The murder…

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México: EEUU arresta a dos hombres vinculados a muerte de editor mexicano

Nueva York, 28 de febrero de 2000 – Agentes federales en Yuma, Arizona, arrestaron a dos hermanos acusados en el asesinato en 1997 de Benjamín Flores González, editor del periódico mexicano La Prensa. Según The Arizona Daily Star, Ismael y Gabriel González Gutiérrez fueron arrestados por acusaciones de narcotráfico el 24 de febrero, después de…

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Peru: Regime uses debts to stifle independent media

New York, Feb. 25, 2000—In a letter sent to President Alberto K. Fujimori on Wednesday, CPJ expressed deep concern about the court-ordered confiscation of broadcast equipment used by the independent station Radio 1160. Ostensibly, the equipment was seized in compensation for an old debt. But according to CPJ’s sources, the real purpose of the February…

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Peru: Independent radio station silenced

Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is writing to protest the court-ordered confiscation of broadcast equipment used by the independent station Radio 1160. Ostensibly, the equipment was seized in compensation for an old debt. But according to CPJ’s sources, the real purpose of the February 16 raid was to silence journalist César Hildebrandt’s recently-launched program “Ondas de Libertad” (“Freedom Waves”), which has aired critical views of Your Excellency’s regime.

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