(AMARC/IFEX) – AMARC expresses its deep concern over the violent police action taken on 19 June 2006 against two peasant community radio stations. The police seized equipment and assaulted local community members who rose to defend the radio stations. According to the Paraguayan Association of Community Communication (Asociación Paraguaya de Comunicación Comunitaria, COMUNICA), in the […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – AMARC expresses its deep concern over the violent police action taken on 19 June 2006 against two peasant community radio stations. The police seized equipment and assaulted local community members who rose to defend the radio stations.
According to the Paraguayan Association of Community Communication (Asociación Paraguaya de Comunicación Comunitaria, COMUNICA), in the early hours of 19 June, police seized the equipment of the Okaraguá radio station Manantial FM of Carayaó City, in Colonia Nicolás Bo, located in the Caaguazú department. Anti-riot police also beat local residents who responded to the station’s emergency call for help.
When the station transmitted a call for help, very soon more than 100 people came to oppose the assault, preventing the police from hauling off all of the station’s equipment. According to AMARC’s sources, the anti-riot squad then lobbed tear gas canisters and beat the local residents, both men and women, inflicting various wounds, some of which required the victims’ hospitalisation.
The same day at 7:00 a.m. (local time), the National Telecommunications Commission (Comisión Nacional de Telecomunicaciones, CONATEL) orchestrated another seizure action, this time against the station Tenondé FM in the city of Coronel Oviedo, also located in the department of Caaguazú.
AMARC condemns the violent action taken against these radio stations operated by the peasant movement. While these stations are being treated as illegal, in fact they are participating in the regularisation procedure organised by CONATEL itself, to resolve the status of these stations and to ensure that Paraguay complies with international standards pertaining to freedom of expression and human rights.
AMARC also expresses its surprise at the different standards applied by CONATEL, when COMUNICA members have denounced the presence, in the same department, of dozens of pirate radio stations not operated by community groups – stations that are not being harassed by authorities because they either enjoy the sympathy of the governing party, or are actually owned by members of the party, according to the spokespersons of COMUNICA.
Manantial FM is considered by its community to be the radio station “that demonstrates the most solidarity with the community,” because of the important services it provides by offering an avenue through which people and groups with scarce resources are able to express their concerns and suggestions. The National Peasant Union (Unión Campesina Nacional, UCN) runs the station.
Tenondé FM is run by the National Peasant Organisation (Organización Nacional Campesina, ONAC), and has provided over a decade of community service. It is currently working on projects to guarantee transparency in public administration, as well as organising actions of benefit to the public.
