President Juan Carlos Varela, since even before assuming control of the Government, has steered events qualified as an attack on freedom of speech and human rights.
Attacks of Varela´s administration against the media are not limited only to the executive, legislative and Judiciary officials, but also are they aimed to autonomous institutions such as the Electoral Court (TE).
One of these recent attacks against the media, and specifically Epasa, was discovered on March 8, 2016, when the TE Magistrates issued an agreement by means of which they ordered newspapers Panama America and Crítica, as well as Central American CB24 TV channel to present their defense on an administrative proceedings against them for the alleged violation of the Electoral Code which could lead to a fine of up to $50 000 against group Epasa.
The reason given in this case is the publication of a summary of a public opinion poll that company Doxa Panama undertook and that, according to the magistrates, violates articles of the Electoral Code which require that all polls are registered in the Electoral Court before publication. The Court threatens to penalize these media with fines ranging from $5,000 to $25 thousand.
All of this is imputed against Epasa since it has been a sharp critic of the excesses that have been committed and attempted by the TE, such as nepotism and alleged administrative anarchy caused by the magistrates.
Besides Epasa, NEXtv has also been targeted with attacks and even with their exclusion from events in which the rest of television channels have participated.
Parallel to this event, the Panamanian State reached an amicable agreement in March of this year with the Italian company Finmeccanica, with which it held a litigation for the purchase of a package of radars and other equipment. The main speaker of this agreement was Ambassador of Panama in Italy, Fernando Berguido, who announced that he would explain the content in all the media to make citizens understand it better. However, when NEXtv asked Berguido for an interview, this is declined on the grounds that he would only give statements to "serious media".
The thread of incidents with the media was another important issue from June to September 2015. One of them was the imprisonment of journalist and lawyer Julio Miller, sharp critic of this Government, for having cashed a check for $20 thousand issued by company Hidalgo & Hidalgo for corporate image consultancies.
A strong friction between the Government and media representatives came to its higher upheaved point earlier this year, when journalist Álvaro Alvarado, of Telemetro, reported that Varela President sought to tarnish his image, silence him and drive him out the journalistic community so as to avoid his criticism.
Datos
- Periodista atacado
- Álvaro Alvarado, de Telemetro, denunció que Varela pretendía empañar su imagen, silenciarlo y sacarlo del medio periodístico para evitar sus cuestionamientos al Gobierno.
- Analista político
- José Isabel Blandón otros de los atacado, que la campaña de difamación en contra de Alvarado y de su persona provino de directivos de TVN-Canal 2, medio de comunicación cuyo propietario es Stanley Motta, el principal donante de la campaña política de Varela.
