**Updates IFEX alert of 18 August 2000** (SPP/IFEX) – A number of attacks against journalists and the press in Paraguay have been reported since the vice presidentâs election on 13 August 2000. Incomplete counts by the Electoral Commission have given the lead to opposition candidate Julio César Franco. In a press release, the SPP expressed […]
**Updates IFEX alert of 18 August 2000**
(SPP/IFEX) – A number of attacks against journalists and the press in Paraguay have been reported since the vice presidentâs election on 13 August 2000. Incomplete counts by the Electoral Commission have given the lead to opposition candidate Julio César Franco.
In a press release, the SPP expressed its concern over the surge of political violence affecting members of the press, and sounded the alert over the possibility of a new attack against fundamental rights such as freedom of expression and access to information.
On 13 August, after the voting polls closed and before the press was permitted to release the results of their exit polls, Radio Primero de Marzo de Asuncion, which conducted one of the polls, received anonymous telephone calls threatening that the station could be attacked. The radio stationâs directors immediately requested police protection.
On the night of 15 August, a group of followers of the Colorado Party (which is part of the government, but whose candidate for vice president lost in the national elections) gathered in front of radio station Radio Ãadutà in Asuncion, and threw rocks and bottles at the offices. The group disagreed with the results of the election and the stationâs broadcasting of the electoral reports. This demonstration occurred at almost the same time as another one initiated by followers of the Colorado Party in front of the Superior Tribunal of Electoral Justice, where they were completing the final counts of the 13 August voting. The same night, similar acts in front of Canal 4 and the newspaper ABC Color were reported, but never confirmed.
Also on 15 August, the journalists authorised to work in the Superior Tribunal of Electoral Justice (Tribunal Superior de Justicia Electoral) were verbally assaulted by Juan Carlos Galaverna, Senator of the Colorado Party, when he was being interviewed about the vote count.
Furthermore, on 17 August, Elizabeth Palma, a reporter with Channel 9, was hit by Calizto Arguelloâs vehicle. Arguello, who faces nineteen charges of corruption, was head of security for former Treasurer General of the Republic Daniel Fretes Ventre. The assault occurred when the former official was leaving the institution, after the new treasurer had assumed power, and was avoiding a press interview. The journalist suffered a broken hip and a spinal injury. The attorney general has requested that the perpetrator be charged.
