Civil Society, Headlines, Human Rights, Latin America & the Caribbean, Press Freedom

HONDURAS: Government Advertising Allocation as “Subtle Censorship”

Thelma Mejía

TEGUCIGALPA, Oct 2 2008 (IPS) - Government practices for allocating official advertising to the Honduran media include reward and punishment policies, payments to individual journalists, and even denial of access to public information – mechanisms that interfere with freedom of expression and the right to information, according to experts.

The Organisation of American States (OAS) Special Rapporteurship for Freedom of Expression points to a form of “subtle censorship,” that uses elusive, non-traditional approaches and looks likely to become the “censorship of the future” for journalism, and a restriction on citizens’ rights of free speech and information.

A report by the non-governmental National Anti-Corruption Council (CNA) revealed a host of practices to buy off and silence people in the media, that have been practised by successive governments but were particularly aggravated over the past two years.

The study, titled “Censura sutil en Honduras: abuso de publicidad oficial y otras formas de censura indirecta” (Subtle Censorship in Honduras: Abuse of Government Advertising and Other Forms of Indirect Censorship), released last month, seeks to draw attention to a problem that has existed ever since this country formally returned to democracy 26 years ago.

Journalist Lucila Funes, one of the authors of the report, told IPS that alongside the transition to democracy and the globalisation of the economy, more subtle or indirect forms of censorship have flourished, such as favouritism when purchasing government advertising space in the press, selective granting of radio and television frequencies, and controlling the president’s press conferences.

“There is a whole range of examples of this type of censorship that may be subtle, but are also open and direct enough to reflect governments’ intentions to silence critical and independent voices among Honduran journalists,” she said.

In her view, one of the most significant findings of the study was the refusal by the majority of interviewees to be named. “They were public officials, journalists, analysts, editors, current and former press spokespersons, all arguing that the relations between the media and those in government was a highly sensitive issue in Honduras,” she said.

According to journalist and university professor Juan Ramón Durán, the study “opens a public debate on a very old but secret issue: the control of the press by means of rewards and reprisals, including the shameful act of paying journalists.”

The study “is not only of a high professional standard, but also addresses issues such as allocation of radio and television frequencies that, although they are public knowledge, hardly anyone dares to tackle, for fear of reprisals,” he said.

A frequently used method of paying a sector of the Honduran press is to award contracts for government advertising to programmes with small audiences. The country has no legislation to regulate such practices.

According to the government contracting and procurement office, the media are exempted from tendering for advertising contracts, which leaves a wide margin for discretionality.

IPS obtained access to an audit of advertising contracts between the national child protection agency (Patronato Nacional de la Infancia) and non-existent journalists and programmes. The auditors pointed out to the authorities that the agency had spent its 2007 advertising budget of over 50,000 dollars in the first six months of the year, without a convincing explanation.

The CNA study in Honduras was carried out in the context of a regional project studying the situation in seven Latin American countries which was coordinated by the Argentine Association for Civil Rights and the U.S.-based Open Society Justice Initiative.

In Honduras, the levels of abuse of government advertising and other forms of censorship are “alarming,” the study says.

To get advertising contracts from the government of Honduran President Manuel Zelaya, good contacts with the authorities are needed, as well as acceptance of certain conditions on news and information content, according to the study.

Government advertising contracts include clauses committing journalists and media to provide only positive coverage about the administration, leaving criticism aside.

When the president travels, the government pays journalists’ expenses on condition that their coverage contains no criticism or controversial aspects. To be invited on the president’s tours, one of the requirements is to work for large media outlets that guarantee a sizeable audience, as well as being a personal friend of the president’s secretary.

With the exception of the national newspapers El Heraldo and La Prensa, which pay their journalists’ expenses on the president’s foreign tours, reporters from the rest of the press nearly always join the entourage at the “kind invitation” of the government.

In Honduras there are four national daily newspapers, as well as one monthly and one weekly magazine, both of which have limited circulation.

In addition, the first on-line publications have appeared in the last five years, including two newspapers, a fortnightly publication and a weekly magazine.

There is heavy concentration of ownership of the media, with the vast majority of local radio and TV stations and print publications owned by just six families.

Although the owners do not need government advertising to survive, they do depend on the state and government for their other enterprises, such as banking, fast food restaurants, pharmaceuticals, insurance companies, “maquiladoras” (for-export assembly plants), coffee plantations, hardware stores, importing meat, ranching and crocodile farms.

Co-author Funes said that contracting government advertising is done “under the table,” through discretionary agreements. “According to media executives consulted by the study, only during electoral campaigns does government advertising become a priority for the big media.”

President Zelaya’s first reaction to the report on Subtle Censorship in Honduras was to complain that he was “being criticised for publicising myself. No one publishes anything about me. Now they say we are abusing advertising, but we are going to continue paying because what prevails here is censorship of my government by the big media.”

Since he took office two years ago, the centre-left Zelaya has had a tense relationship with the Honduran press, which he criticises for failing to provide coverage of what his government is doing.

He has resorted to nationwide broadcasts, and created his own weekly newspaper, radio programme and, more recently, TV station, to counteract what he calls “disinformation by de facto power groups.”