A roller-coaster year for the Panamanian press began with a flurry of prosecutions under the country’s infamous “gag laws.” After the outgoing government tried to strengthen the gag laws under the pretense of reforming them, the year ended with the new government repealing some of the gag laws’ most onerous provisions. In the 20 years…
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…
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…
New York, December 21, 1999 — Panamanian President Mireya Moscoso signed a bill yesterday eliminating two of the country’s “gag laws,” which have been used to stifle press freedom. Moscoso described the gag laws as a “sword of Damocles hanging over the media in Panama” and pledged to work for the elimination of the other…
New York, December 1, 1999 — In a major step forward for press freedom in Panama, the country’s Legislative Assembly approved a bill repealing some of the more onerous provisions of the country’s “gag laws.” The new bill, passed last night with the approval of 70 of the Legislative Assembly’s 71 members, repeals part of…
October 26, 1999 — CPJ is alarmed about a defamation campaign being waged against Gustavo Gorriti, the Peruvian-born associate editor of the leading Panama City daily La Prensa. Earlier this month, a mysterious organization called the “Committee for Freedom of Expression in Panama” put up posters all around Panama City that showed Gorriti’s face with…
Panama City, Panama, September 8, 1999–A delegation from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) met with newly inaugurated president Mireya Moscoso this morning and urged her to repeal the country’s notorious “gag laws,” which criminalize the practice of journalism in Panama. The gag laws date largely from military governments of the 1970s and 1980s. They…
El 28 de julio, dos días después de que el Ministerio de Gobierno y Justicia retirara un proyecto para modificar una ley mordaza de 1978 ante protestas a nivel nacional e internacional, el Gabinete panameño aprobó un proyecto casi igual. Como dice un editorial del periódico La Prensa,de la ciudad de Panamá, el nuevo proyecto…
July 28, 1999 –On July 28, two days after the Minister of Government and Justice withdrew her proposed amendment to a 1978 gag law in the face of national and international criticism, the Panamanian Cabinet approved an only slightly different amendment to the law. As a July 30 editorial of the Panama City-based daily La…
July 26, 1999 His Excellency Ernesto Pérez Balladares President of Panama Presidential Palace Panama City, Panama Fax: 507-227-0073 Your Excellency, The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) is deeply concerned about the criminal prosecution of Orlanda Obad, a Croatian journalist with the independent political daily Jutarnji List, who was charged with violating Article 295 of the Croatian…