(FLIP/IFEX) – The monthly “El Periódico de Chía”, published in Chía, a town near the capital, Bogotá, has been subjected to a discredit campaign by Chía Mayor Fernando Sánchez Gutiérrez , who has sent the newspaper’s advertisers and readers letters criticizing the newspaper and its content. An October 2005 editorial and the publication of a […]
(FLIP/IFEX) – The monthly “El Periódico de Chía”, published in Chía, a town near the capital, Bogotá, has been subjected to a discredit campaign by Chía Mayor Fernando Sánchez Gutiérrez , who has sent the newspaper’s advertisers and readers letters criticizing the newspaper and its content.
An October 2005 editorial and the publication of a report by the Cundinamarca regional government regarding the performance of various municipal governments have irritated the mayor. Sánchez first sent a letter to the newspaper saying that there was a “cloud of interests” undermining the newspaper’s objectivity. The mayor later distributed a series of letters to advertisers in which he questioned the credibility of the newspaper’s information, with the letter he had previously sent the newspaper attached.
According to FLIP’s investigation of the matter, the October editorial expressed discontent with the way the municipality was being run, and presented information from a report by the Cundinamarca Department’s government, which had stated that Chía’s rating in the performance assessment of the municipal governments in the department had dropped from fifth place to 26th.
Newspaper director Carlos Arango Duque told FLIP that various Chía public servants and advertisers had told him that the mayor instructed advertisers to cancel their ads with the newspaper, and that letters had even been sent to several residential complexes suggesting that the distribution of the newspaper within them be suspended. Mayor Sánchez stated that he has reservations about the information published in the newspaper’s editorials, and had therefore sent nearly 300 letters to elected neighbourhood bodies and residential complexes, as well as advertisers, to make his position known.
FLIP believes that the mayor’s actions against the newspaper constitute a serious violation of press freedom and urge him to cease them. To discredit a media outlet before its advertisers and readers is a direct attempt to eliminate the publication. Media outlets have the constitutional right to investigate and criticize public officials’ conduct. The latter, in turn, have the constitutional right to use various legal mechanisms to obtain rectifications, when such are warranted.
Article 5 of the Organization of American States (OAS) Declaration Of Principles On Freedom Of Expression states, “(p)rior censorship, direct or indirect interference in or pressure exerted upon any expression, opinion or information transmitted through any means of (. . .) communication must be prohibited by law. Restrictions to the free circulation of ideas and opinions, as well as the (. . .) imposition of obstacles to the free flow of information violate the right to freedom of expression.”
