November 2022 in the Americas: A free expression round up produced by IFEX's Regional Editor Laura Vidal, based on IFEX member reports and news from the region.
Gang violence and police brutality engulfing Haiti take the life of its 8th journalist in 2022; Bolivia’s month-long strike in Santa Cruz takes a toll among press workers; Cuban independent journalists and human rights defenders continue to be harassed by authorities, and women in the region unite for lives and workplaces free of violence.
Haiti: Defenceless in the face of violence
Haiti’s security crisis, in combination with police brutality, has created a lethal formula for journalists and the press, who lack resources and protection. In November, Fritz Dorilas became the eighth journalist killed in 2022. Dorilas was shot near his home in Tabarre, northeast of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Reporters Without Borders (RSF), the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) and the Association of Caribbean MediaWorkers (ACM) deplored the incident, and stressed how a climate of impunity incentivizes violent individuals.
As well as fatal attacks, Haitian journalists have had to face constant harassment from the police and arbitrary detention for doing their work.
RSF and the OAS Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Opinion and Expression highlighted the horrifying frequency with which Haitian journalists are being killed, and pointed to the case of journalist Romelson Vilcin as an illustration of what happens when journalists find themselves trapped between police and gang violence. Vilcin was killed on 30 October, when a teargas grenade fired by a policeman struck his head during a protest at the station to demand the release of his colleague Robest Dimanche.
“It is incomprehensible that a journalist could be killed by a police officer while outside a police station demanding the release of a fellow journalist who had been arrested for doing his job.”
In addition to criminal gangs fighting for control in the political vacuum that followed President Jovenel Moise’s assassination in 2021, Haiti continues to suffer from a crippling security and humanitarian crisis, as a blockade on a key petrol terminal has led to electricity and water shortages.
Cuba: The pressure on journalists and rights defenders continues
In Cuba, the shock waves of the July 2021 protests continue to be felt among journalists and human rights defenders, while the difficult economic situation on the island and human rights abuses against prisoners continue to push people to the streets or to exile. Many journalists, artists and human rights defenders have been sentenced to disproportionate prison sentences for protesting or covering protests, and government authorities harass and pressure independent journalists.
As a result, many have been forced to leave their outlets (which has resulted in some closures), or to end their professional activities and announce this publicly. Other journalists saw leaving the island and working from abroad as their only option, especially with a new Penal Code that can be used to censor and penalize press workers who step outside of the lines of the narratives of the State-controlled media. Some of the most recent forms of harassment include threatening to make private health conditions public, as in the case of independent journalist Manuel de la Cruz, or targeting family members, as in the case of Laritza Diversent’s mother, who was told to convince her daughter to stop her human rights defense activities in exchange for medical attention.
Bolivia: Attacks from all sides
November brought a high number of challenges for journalists and press workers in Bolivia, with strikes and protests paralizing the Santa Cruz region for over a month. The conflict had its origins in the census process, which – according to local groups in Santa Cruz – could mean more resources allocated to the region, as well as more representation in Congress. The strike came to an end on 26 November after lawmakers approved a guarantee to hold a population census in 2024; but press workers were left with a high count of damages, as journalists were the target of violence while covering the strike.
Among them was the case of Mario Alberto Rocabado Román, who was viciously attacked by protesters while police officers at the scene failed to intervene. The prosecution charged the attackers with “attempted murder”, but the process took a turn when they left the accused under house arrest, instead of in preventive custody. The National Press Association of Bolivia (ANP) deplored these developments, stating that since 2008 attacks against journalists have neither been investigated nor sanctioned, and that this feeds the climate of impunity that makes journalists so vulnerable.
In other cases, journalists have been arrested under trumped-up charges after covering the hostilities that took place during the strike. Representatives of local journalist organisations, as well as press workers and rights defenders, organised protests and later sent a letter to the Ministry of Governance documenting 40 cases and demanding that attacks against the press be investigated.
In this context, journalists find themselves the targets of violent individuals, protesters, politicians and the police, often times overlapping. Beyond the context of the protests, the case of political cartoonist Abel Bellido, who received death threats that included his family – and who had also been the target of violence during the political crisis of 2019 – shows how public figures can continue to stigmatise journalists while publicly condemning violence against them. In response to the death threats Bellido received, ex-president Evo Morales said on Twitter: “In spite of [Bellido’s] everyday insults and hate speech against us, I express my condemnation of the attacks against him.”
16 Days: Campaigning to push back against gender-based violence
Every 25 of November, civil society organisations in the Americas join the 16-day international campaign that bridges the International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women and Human Rights Day. These 16 days are characterised by intense and vibrant conversations aiming to make visible the many ways violence finds its way into women’s lives, and how to put an end to this violence
In Colombia, Fundación Karisma shared explainers over social media channels as part of an “audio glossary,” to explain and describe online violence against women. ARTICE 19 Mexico and Central America and the Red de Defensa de Derechos Digitales (R3D) joined other organisations in Mexico to publish a protocol to prevent and tackle attacks and sexual harassment against women in civil society organisations.
The 16 days were also a useful background for conversations around the realities of newsrooms for women journalists. In Paraguay, the Union of Paraguayan Journalists (SPP) organised a discussion on related challenges, including pay gaps, threats against women journalists and their children, sexual harassment, inadequate contracts, and insufficient protection. These conditions resonate with the experiences of many women journalists in the region, whose concerns were documented by the OAS Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression.
More discussions and initiatives can be followed online, in Spanish, through #16DiasDeActivismo (“16 days of activism”).
In brief
In the United States, more than 45 civil society groups sent a letter to Congress urging it to pass the “American Innovation and Choice Online Act” and “Open App Markets Act” to limit the power of Big Tech companies – power that gives them unfair advantages over smaller competitors – and to prohibit the use of privately collected data to “unfairly advantage the platforms’ own products”. In the letter, signatories highlighted that “poll after poll has shown the public is fed up with Big Tech’s unchecked power and is eager to support members getting tough with them”.
In Argentina, the Association for Civil Rights (ADC) published a report on many of the challenges disinformation poses for journalists, analysing their most recent iterations. The report also contains a toolbox and a collection of sources for journalists to use and expand on in the exercise of their work, especially when working with digital sources.
