By Thelma Mejía
TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 2 1999 (IPS)

People’s defenders from Latin America meeting in the capital of Honduras called for greater freedom of expression and guarantees for journalists in the region, who often face threats and even murder.

The fourth Ibero-American Congress of Ombudsmen underlined Tuesday and Wednesday that freedom of expression in the world should not only serve as a line of defence during dictatorships, but also against the authoritarian civilian democratic regimes that exist today in several Latin American countries.

The people’s defenders discussed in Tegucigalpa the role they were to play against social ills like corruption, organised crime, poverty and discrimination as they moved into a new century.

Participants also proposed strategies by which civil society could enjoy greater influence over public spending and ensuring transparency, underlining that only active grassroots participation could guarantee the stability of the world’s democracies.

Honduran Human Rights Commissioner Leo Valladares told IPS that the two-day gathering was aimed at “identifying threats to basic human rights and any form of impunity that attempts against freedom of expression.”

Another of the meeting’s objectives was to confirm people’s defenders’ commitment to vulnerable sectors like women, children, the elderly, the disabled, ethnic minorities and immigrants.

In his opening address to the two-day Congress, Honduran President Carlos Flores stated his government’s aim to “guarantee unconditional respect for human rights and greater participation by civil society in decision-making.”

Flores said nature’s wrath could not wrest away the determination of the Honduran people to continue forging new spaces for civil participation, the strengthening of institutions, freedom and human rights.

Honduras, nowhere near recovering from the extensive damages caused by Hurricane Mitch late last year, has been hit by severe flooding over the past few weeks, which has displaced around 6,000 people and claimed at least 13 lives.

Participants in the Congress heard that Latin America was going through one of its most critical moments with respect to the exercise of the journalistic vocation and freedom of expression, because of “kings” interested in silencing the “messengers.”

Santiago Cantón, the Organisation of American States’ (OAS) special rapporteur for freedom of expression, said the history of democracies in the region was a stormy one in which the press had played a decisive role identifying and denouncing corruption.

But the independent press itself suffers the brunt of the consequences of its investigative reporting, said Cantón. According to a report on freedom of expression being drawn up by the OAS, the murders of more than 150 reporters in recent years have gone unpunished.

Cantón mentioned Peru, Argentina and Panama as countries where guarantees for the press are particularly weak, given the discovery of intelligence services that “investigate” independent journalists and attempt to “set limits on and intimidate them, and even make attempts against their lives.”

Before President Mireya Moscoso took office on Sep 1, Panama approved a series of censorship laws limiting freedom of expression. But “we are confident that the new regime will take the necessary corrective measures, as promised by” Moscoso, said Cantón.

The OAS official pointed out that freedom of expression was also at risk in Central America, and called for greater participation by civil society in order to protect it.

Civil society should also lobby for transparency, and prevent reporters themselves from being accomplices in acts of impunity in exchange for money, “as often occurs,” he added.

Bolivian People’s Defender Ana María Romero, the first woman journalist to hold that post in her country, said that “many kings believe that killing the messenger is the best way to govern.

“The interests at play in restricting information are many, and there are always those who believe they have supreme powers to silence the messengers, in this case journalists, who will survive anyway if their truth is transparent, and the people understand that.”

Romero said journalism was a high-risk vocation when exercised on “ethnical foundations.”

“Today many reporters in Latin America must leave behind the idea that they are protagonists in and judges of events. They must always weigh developments, and act ethically,” she added.

Romero and Cantón were loudly applauded by a group of independent reporters in Honduras, who said that over the past year they had been suffering “harassment” by a government intent on curbing criticism.

Flores has become “the worst executioner” of journalism in Honduras, by shelling out more than 10 million dollars a year to a group of reporters who are to improve his public image, say critics.

The reporters in question allegedly enjoy travel expenses, housing, cars and other perks provided by the government, according to complaints filed with the office of the public prosecutor.

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