(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 9 March 2006 AMARC statement: AMARC expressed its profound concern over the increasing repression directed toward community-based media. On 2 March 2006, various officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, accompanied by some 20 police officers, surrounded and then entered the offices of two coordinating member […]
(AMARC/IFEX) – The following is an abridged version of a 9 March 2006 AMARC statement:
AMARC expressed its profound concern over the increasing repression directed toward community-based media.
On 2 March 2006, various officials of the Public Prosecutor’s Office, accompanied by some 20 police officers, surrounded and then entered the offices of two coordinating member associations of the Guatemalan Council on Community Communications (Consejo Guatemalteco de Comunicación Comunitaria, CGCC). AMARC is a member of the CGCC.
Representatives of the two associations raided (Asociación de Radios Comunitarias de Guatemala, ARCG, and Asociación de Medios Comunitarios de Sololá, AMECOS) accused the prosecutor in charge, a Mr. Ródenas, of acting in a belligerent and abusive manner.
During the action, the authorities illegally seized all the files of the radio stations affiliated with the associations, suggesting these stations may become future targets of similar actions, and that their staff will be at risk of imprisonment. Officials also seized computers and documents, even though both associations have legal status and are recognized as legitimate by the government.
The CGCC is also concerned because these actions were authorized by the public prosecutor responsible for crimes against journalists, a Mr. Castañeda, who should be protecting community media workers rather than repressing them.
Ironically, the raid took place just as a Dialogue Meeting on media and freedom of expression issues – convened by the government itself, through its human rights commission – was being held, for the third time, with the participation of both AMARC and the CGCC.
Participants in the meeting voiced their concern over the raid and the sincerity of government involvement in the dialogue process. Government representatives acknowledged their failure to fulfill past commitments.
