HASH(0x8960ba8) (WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release: Arrest of Chilean Journalist Draws Protest The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) protested to the Chilean government Wednesday against the arrest of journalist Paula Afani and a police raid on her home and office. Mrs. Afani was detained on Monday (18 January) in the newsroom […]
HASH(0x8960ba8)
(WAN/IFEX) – The following is a WAN press release:
Arrest of Chilean Journalist Draws Protest
The World Association of Newspapers (WAN) protested to the Chilean
government Wednesday against the arrest of journalist Paula Afani and a
police raid on her home and office.
Mrs. Afani was detained on Monday (18 January) in the newsroom of the La
Tercera and La Hora newspapers, where police attempted to intimidate her
into revealing her sources for a story that appeared in the two dailies in
June 1998. The story concerned alleged links between shipping magnate Manuel
Losada and others to a drug-trafficking network known as “Ocean Operation.”
Investigators had also raided Mrs. Afani’s home and the offices in the
Consorcio Periodistico de Chile where the newspapers are based.
“We believe that Paula Afani is exercising her professional right to refuse
to reveal her sources, a right laid forth in the new Press Law which is
being processed by the Chilian Parliament,” WAN said in a letter to Chilean
President Eduardo Frei Ruiz-Tagle. “By acting in her defence, you will
demonstrate your personal commitment to the International Covenant on Civil
and Political Rights and the American Convention on Human Rights, which
Chile has ratified.”
WAN also urged President Frei to stop the State Defence Council and other
investigators from attempting to intimidate the press.
“This is not the first time that the State Defence Council (CDE) has
attempted to silence the press over stories reporting on Ocean Operation,”
said the letter, signed by WAN President Bengt Braun. “Six months ago, the
CDE proposed information restrictions which were rejected by the Valparaiso
Court of Appeals.”
The Paris-based WAN, the global association of the newspaper industry,
defends and promotes press freedom and the economic independence of
newspapers. It represents 15,000 newspapers world-wide and its membership
includes 57 national newspaper publisher associations, individual newspaper
executives in 100 countries, 17 news agencies and seven regional press
groups.
