(PFC/IFEX) – CINTEC Environment Inc., the Canadian company that manages greater San Salvador’s solid waste, has announced in a press release that it plans to take legal action against two newspapers the company accuses of damaging its reputation. On 11 February 2003, “El Diario de Hoy” and “La Prensa Gráfica” began publishing a series of […]
(PFC/IFEX) – CINTEC Environment Inc., the Canadian company that manages greater San Salvador’s solid waste, has announced in a press release that it plans to take legal action against two newspapers the company accuses of damaging its reputation.
On 11 February 2003, “El Diario de Hoy” and “La Prensa Gráfica” began publishing a series of reports on CINTEC, in which they say the company may be a conduit for money laundering, that its management has connections with international organised crime and that it has mismanaged a municipal fund of US$6 million.
Probidad, the organisation that administers PFC, has written to Human Rights Prosecutor Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo, asking for her intervention in the case. Probidad points out that in El Salvador slander and libel are dealt with in the criminal code and carry heavy penalties, including jail terms, and that the Salvadoran justice system does not guarantee the rights of the media in cases that involve freedom of expression issues.
For Probidad’s letter to the human rights prosecutor, reports and other information on this case, see:
http://probidad-sv.org/libexp/casos/2003/002.html
Recommended Action
Send appeals to the human rights prosecutor:
-asking that she condemn CINTEC for its decision to take legal action against “El Diario de Hoy” and “La Prensa Gráfica”
– urging her to encourage CINTEC to counter the claims made against it by allowing full access to information about its executives and operations
– further asking that she intercede with the state to change the legislation concerning freedom of expression and crimes against honour, so they conform with the international human rights covenants signed by El Salvador and with the Declaration of Principles on Freedom of Expression, of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights
Appeals To
Beatrice Alamanni de Carrillo
Human Rights Prosecutor
Fax: +503 222 0655
Please copy appeals to the source if possible.
