Ecobreves – CHILE: Video on Dead Swans Censored

By IPS Correspondents and - - Reprint | | Print |

SANTIAGO, Oct 24 2005 (IPS) - Environmental watchdog group Oceana is using the Internet to disseminate a video on the death of hundreds of swans at the Rio Cruces nature sanctuary in southern Chile after its public screening was censored. Sara Sinsay of Publicitaria, the company that owns the theater where the video was scheduled to be shown, initially reported that the ban was imposed by the Santiago municipal authorities, although she later retracted the statement.

According to Oceana, Sinsay asked the organization to send a new version of the video that did not show individuals “publicly linked to the destruction of the sanctuary,” including former Chilean president Eduardo Frei (1994-2000), whose administration authorized the construction of the pulp mill blamed for the death of 500 swans and the migration of another 3,000.

As a result, “the municipal government of Santiago is an accomplice to those responsible for the worst environmental disaster of the decade in Chile,” Oceana vice president Marcel Claude told Tierramérica.