Journalists under Pressure - Central America

Danida supports freedom of speech and investigative journalism in Central America

Text by Finn Rasmussen

José Ruben Zamora is a persistent man who is used to resistance. He is the director of Guatemala's best and most critical newspaper, el Periodico. The newspaper has a modest circulation of 30,000 copies, but due to its profile it is eagerly read by decision makers and helps set the political agenda.

However, the end might be near. The newspaper now finds itself under commercial pressure. The stock majority is held by the powerful newspaper corporation La Prensa Libre that demands that el Periodico changes its critical approach. They want a newspaper that addresses the country's economic elite with high priority put on business and lifestyle topics.

They do have one alternative for him - he is welcome to buy their shares of stock for almost USD 2 million, and they have given him two months to raise the money. He has accepted this task and is busy visiting potential investors. Half of the time is up - just 30 days are left - and much remains undone. Nevertheless, he has taken the time to talk about the problems and the role of the media in the still young democracy of Guatemala.

It is not the first time he finds himself in a difficult situation. José Ruben Zamora was the man behind the newspaper Sigloventinuno, a newspaper famous outside the borders of the country for being critical, investigative and politically comprehensive. This editorial line was not popular among those in power. He and other associates were threatened and exposed to physical assaults.

False charges were pressed against Zamora involving drug dealing and organised crime.

Before the presidential election in 1995 one of the candidates, Alvaro Arzü, demanded that the newspaper supported his campaign. Zamora refused, Arzü¸ was elected President, and the problems accumulated. In the end Zamora had to give the newspaper up, forced by his board of directors that was under pressure from the President.

He took his best employees with him and in a short time he built up the new newspaper el Periodico while Sigloventinuno turned towards the business environment.

José Ruben Zamora says that the role of the media in a country like Guatemala has a different function from that in well-functioning democratic countries.

- In Guatemala neither the legal system nor the legislative body and the national audit have any power whatsoever. Therefore, the newspapers must to some degree compensate for this unbalance so that abuse of power can be avoided. It is from here the strong tension between the independent newspapers, the governmental power, and other powerful people in the country arises.

That is the role he and his associates have been trying to give el Periodico during the two years it has existed. And if they succeed in raising the necessary funds to buy the newspaper free, they will keep doing this.

PRODECA is one of the possible donors José Ruben Zamora considers applying for support to the continuation of the newspaper.

Danish Media Support

PRODECA is Danida's human rights program in Central America. The program has been in effect since December 1992. In 1998 the program entered its third phase which includes support of freedom of speech and investigative journalism as one of four main areas of action.

The Danish Ambassador in Nicaragua Orla Bakdal, who has the overall responsibility for PRODECA, says about the support of the media:

“ We will help ensure the creation of conditions, where the media can help reflect the political situation in the country while also acting as a tool for educating the elite and the largest possible segment of the population.

That includes the opportunity for the media to scrutinise the government and other bodies of power and make problems such as corruption and abuse of power known to the public and thus subject them to public debate. That is precisely the kind of journalistic work that characterises el Periodico.

It would be a devastating loss for the development of the media in Guatemala if el Periodico went out of business, Thora Gehl says, advisor at PRODECA and responsible for the media field. She points out that two other media in the country were recently put under pressure due to critical journalism.”

The weekly magazine Crónica and the radio news program Guatemala Flash were both progressive and critical media. The investigative journalism at Crónica closely surveyed the PAN party's governmental rule. The government reacted by coercing advertisers away from the magazine. Later the magazine was sold to new owners and is a harmless weekly magazine today. The same happened to Guatemala Flash as it lost advertisement revenues and was later sold to a government-friendly buyer.

Regional Problem

Even though the stockholders' demands for a changed editorial line at the el Periodico are not based on political pressure but are a matter of money, it indicates harassment and results in just that. Investigative and critical journalism has experienced hard times in Guatemala, a situation that can be observed in other countries in Central America as well.

It is hardly news to the region that critical media that look over the shoulders of those in power are given a hard time. However, in reality the conditions have improved. During civil wars and military dictatorships in the past much more aggressive action was taken against critical journalism.

The methods that were used included physical threats and assassinations of journalists and media owners. Today, these means of power against critical media are seldom used. Instead more legitimate means such as economic arm-twisting are put in effect.

Ambassador Orla Bakdal emphasises that it is a big problem when the governments of Central American countries do not respect the media as institutions that play an important role in society.

He observes that some presidents in the region were profoundly shocked as they were elected.“They thought that when they had been elected democratically they could do almost anything they desired. But a democracy does not work that way. Democracy is not only meant to be practised on the day of the election; it is about continuous debate and dialogue. And that is where the media play a very important role.”

And that is also where the frictions between governments and media have their origins.

In addition to relying on economic arm-twisting those with power in government also attempt to control the media through controlled accessibility of information. Or, rather, through the information to which they deny access. Governments typically run tightly closed information policies where limited access to documents gives limited opportunity for investigative and critical journalism.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro, the editor of the Nicaraguan weekly magazine Confidencial, gives an example. Nicaragua and the International Monetary Foundation, IMF, have recently signed an agreement on a possible debt remission. However, the government must fulfil certain terms in order for the agreement to be implemented.

“The government will not give information on what the terms are. The government protects them as if they were state secrets”, he says.

Strategic Aid

There is little doubt that PRODECA operates within an area that needs support when it comes to freedom of speech and investigative journalism. In addition to the problems of pressure from those in power and no access to information, problems are also found in the training of journalists. Too much emphasis is put on theory and too little is put on practice, and not enough instructors have journalistic experience.

However, one could object that this might be an overly ambitious area for the Danish human rights program to take care of.

Klavs Wulff, the chief advisor at PRODECA, believes that the program can achieve significant results in terms of the media. That is partly due to the way the program works. PRODECA is a flexible and fast-working program that is able to offer strategic assistance.

- It is not the size of an appropriation, but the allocation of it that is essential to us, Klavs Wulff says. He explains that PRODECA works with other donors that control far greater funds. But by appropriating funds much quicker than most other support programs PRODECA can exploit a sudden opening and thus perhaps move into new areas. Later the larger donors might follow up on such initiatives.

Only in the present stage of the program has significant support been granted to the media field. Therefore only few results can be presented so far.

One result is from El Salvador where PRODECA has supported the publication of several different newspaper supplements that put critical focus on the national development strategy. The newspaper supplements, produced by the crew of journalists that stand behind the monthly magazine Tendencias, were inserted into some of the largest newspapers in the country with circulations of 100,000 newspapers. This allowed for the presentation of themes and problems that are not usually covered by common journalism.

Robert Turcios, the director of Tendencias, says that the newspaper supplements helped influence the public debate on the national development strategy. In addition, the experiences have meant a breakthrough for Tendencias so that it now has a regular monthly newspaper supplement to the newspaper La Prensa Grafica. Búho, The Owl, is the name of the supplement, which takes a critical look at cultural issues.

Klavs Wulff says about the experiences:

“ The Tendencias initiative was not about supporting their monthly publication; on the contrary it was an attempt to support their plans of reaching a wider audience and gaining access to the larger magazines with alternative information. That is what we have sponsored and also do with other newspaper supplements. That concept has now been accepted at the newspaper in the cultural field. That means we look at these projects as pioneer projects that can help poke new holes in a very tightly sealed circuit within certain national processes. It is one example of a strategic effort.”

Three Approaches

PRODECA is in the process of planning the initiatives of the next few years within the media field. Thora Gehl outlines the three possible approaches of the support within the media field.

“The strengthening of the instruction of students and possibly additional training of working journalists is one approach. Another approach concerns media owners and focuses on encouraging them to give students opportunities for practice as well as granting more freedom to the journalists who want to work with journalism that is critical and creates debate. Finally, PRODECA considers supporting processes that will create better connections and a better flow of news between rural and urban areas. It is a big problem that the media are so centrally focused and never reach far enough to cover the conditions of rural people, who constitute the majority of the poor”, Thora Gehl says.

One project ready to be launched and one that has received funds from Denmark cover all of the three approaches. And more.

Carlos Fernando Chamorro wants to create a weekly debate programme on Channel 2, Nicaragua's largest TV station. The ambitions are lofty. The idea is to change the public debate, increase the focus on public and private people in power, and to give the public a better opportunity of taking part in the public sphere. Themes from the week will be subject to public discussion every Sunday night, and news, information and opinions from disesteemed groups, for instance the poor rural population, are to be included in the programme.

“We want to deal with themes that are not always on the agenda. We want to go out into the countryside and speak to the peasants. They do not have an organised lobby and thus have a hard time pushing their opinions through in the very monopolised public debate”, Carlos Fernando Chamorro says.

In addition the programme will offer training positions for a limited number of journalist students who thereby can gain tangible experience in critical and investigative journalism on TV.

PRODECA and the embassy in Nicaragua are extremely positive toward the project and will grant support to the establishment of the show. The show is then meant to become economically self-sufficient within a two-year period, funded by commercials.

But is a critical TV-programme likely to be allowed to exist without the government or anyone else withholding commercials or coercing others to do so?

Carlos Fernando Chamorro is of that opinion. He has previous experience from a similar programme on the same channel that proved to be economically sound.

Channel 2 is a leading channel that has more than 65% of the viewers. It is a channel with a very strong economy, which means it does not depend on advertisement revenues from the government.

He emphasises that he fully trusts the management at Channel 2 and believes that they will ensure the editorial freedom of the show if any pressure is applied from the government.

Development Potential

Chamorro has a good overview of the conditions of the media in other countries in the region and has a positive outlook in terms of the opportunities of developing critical and investigative journalism in Central America.

First and foremost much potential lies in the new generations of journalists, he says. They are not bound by history and the ideology that previously set its footprints on journalism due to the civil wars and the sharp antagonisms between left-wing and right-wing politics.

At the same time he sees a softening of ideology within media corporations as well. More and more are beginning to run media like commercial businesses and producing journalism that adheres to economic conditions instead of being affected by external political pressure. That means, for instance, that they respect the journalists' right to editorial freedom.

Within the alliance between the young journalists and the modern media corporations is where the journalistic development could take place in Central America. International support could play a decisive role here, he adds, but it must be support granted in a certain way.

“The donors must find new ways of operating so that they do not see international support as subsidies, but as support for development where they grant funds for the establishment of new media that are later to develop into economically sound units”, Carlos Fernando Chamorro says.

30 Days Later

We are in the beginning of December 1999, and the 30 days that José Ruben Zamora had to raise the money for el Periodico have expired. His persistence paid off. He managed to raise the required USD 2 million for buying La Prensa Grafica's stocks in el Periodico. The money was raised in the form of banker's guarantees from 120 individuals.

No support for Zamora's project was granted by PRODECA's media component.

La Prensa Grafica was surprised that Zamora managed to raise the money and did not want to sell all their stocks. In the end they kept 15%.

Even though the immediate problems have been solved, the situation for el Periodico continues to be a difficult one. Work capital is needed for the next year or so, and due to the general economic slowdown it remains unknown whether they can maintain the current level of advertising.

Above document provided as background for The Drum Beat #57

DANIDA, the Danish International Development Agency, supports communication for development. There is currently a policy revision taking place. These articles and activities indicate pathways for future activities relatingto communication for development. Not all activities are supported by DANIDA.

Inge Estvad (journalist, est@image.dk), Finn Rasmussen (Communication Adviser, IBIS Ecuador, frasmussen@andinanet.net) and Thomas Tufte, Ph.D. (Professor, Roskilde University ttufte@ruc.dk) gathered the material that provides comprehensive insight into the policies and programmes selected.