RIGHTS-CHILE: Reporter’s Case Marks Lack of Freedom of Expression

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Gustavo González

SANTIAGO, Oct 1 1999 (IPS) - The U.S. government’s decision to grant political asylum to Chilean journalist Alejandra Matus confirmed that 10 years after the restoration of democracy in this Southern Cone country, freedom of expression remains severely limited, say analysts.

The young journalist fled the country in April after a warrant for her arrest was issued on charges of slander against former Supreme Court president Servando Jordán.

The U.S. Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) Thursday granted Matus asylum for one year, which could be extended, on the grounds that she faced legal charges in Chile that violated her basic rights.

“The Black Book of Chilean Justice”, in which Matus documented cases of corruption involving bribery, trafficking of influences and other irregularities in the courts, was published six months ago.

The book also detailed the judiciary’s submission to the dictatorship of General Augusto Pinochet (1973-90), expressed most clearly through the rejection of writs of habeas corpus designed to protect detainees who now figure on the list of nearly 1,200 disappeared victims.

Chileans have been banned from reading the book, and all copies were seized on an order issued by Judge Rafael Huerta the day the book was put on sale, in an unusually swift response to a lawsuit filed by Jordán.

The former Supreme Court president based his claims of slander against Matus, who revealed details of his alcoholism and his actions in several legal cases, on article 6-B of the Law on State Security.

According to that article, defamation of high-level government officials, judges and military officers amounts to “sedition,” an offence punishable by law.

The law also authorises judges to order the confiscation of the “instruments” of slander – in this case Matus’ book.

Matus was warned of her imminent arrest in April, and flew to Buenos Aires before returning to the U.S. city of Miami, Florida, where she had been residing since 1997 on a university grant.

Judge Huerta also ordered the arrest of the two chief executive officers of the Chilean branch of the Planeta publishing house, Bartolo Ortiz and Carlos Orellana, who were released after spending three days in jail.

As occurred in 1992 when journalist Francisco Martorell’s book “Diplomatic Impunity” was seized on court order, “The Black Book of Chilean Justice” has become an underground hit.

The book has been photocopied thousands of times, and pirate editions are sold discreetly to passersby on street corners in downtown Santiago.

The director of the University of Chile’s School of Journalism, Faride Zerán, said Friday that the asylum granted to Matus was a “disgrace” for Chilean authorities, and demonstrated that freedom of expression was not yet safe in Chile.

Minister of the General Secretariat of the Government and spokesman for President Frei, Carlos Mladinic, termed the situation faced by Matus “tremendously unjust.”

The lawsuit against Matus is based on legal provisions “that we have been unable to abolish, which does not speak well of our system,” said the minister, who described the provisions as “disgraceful.”

In comments to Chile’s state TV station from Miami, Matus said she was granted asylum because the case against her was “unjust and illegitimate.”

“I would not hesitate to write another such book,” she added.

Matus filed her request for asylum with the support of the U.S.- based organisation Human Rights Watch/Americas, which in 1998 issued a report in which Chile was described as one of the Latin American countries with the most limited freedom of expression.

As a possible positive result of the episode, parliament is expected to approve, within the next few weeks, reforms to the Law on State Security which will eliminate the controversial article 6- B.