Page 49 - Anatomy-of-a-Fraud

3. MEDIA CONTROL

The government has all television channels but one; all daily
newspapers but one; the most powerful radio stations. They dominate the media”, Dr.
César Quintero, Presiding Judge, Electoral Tribunal, quoted in Barcelona’s La
Vanguardia, May 21, 1984.

“There have been abuses in the media: Discrimination in access to them; in
fact, some of the media was systematically closed to their political adversaries; and
bias in news reporting, in some cases to the point of dishonesty, verbal violence,
disrespectful personal remarks, and a failure to observe the rules that the media
themselves established”. Panamanian Episcopal Conference Declaration on The
Electoral Process, May 25, 1984, point 16.

One may logically infer from the above paragraphs that the “abuses”,
“dishonesty” and “violence” that occurred in the mass media were largely directed and
sponsored by the government, for it is the government that controls the media. Or, more
specifically, the Defense Forces General Staff, in different ways and to different
degrees, controls the media.

Let us see now in more detail how this efficient government control is
achieved.

A. Printed Press

In Panamá there are six national newspapers: La Prensa, La Estrella de
Panamá, Crítica, Matutino, La República and Ya.

La Prensa, which calls itself “Panama’s free daily” began publication on
August 4, 1980. Its publishing company has over 600 stockholders, since it was the
wish of its organizers that the paper’s financial resources should come from many
stockholders, thus guaranteeing its editorial independence.

La Prensa has made a name for itself for its continuous exposés of official
corruption and abuses of power, typical of the regime established 16 years ago
following the 1968, coup d’état. The newspaper has paid a high price for its courage
and honesty.

In barely 48 months since it first hit the streets, La Prensa has been closed
down and occupied by the Defense Forces a total of seven days (while under “custody”
by the Guard, its machinery suffered more than $100,000 in damages); attacked twice
by pro-government mobs, which injured some employees and stockholders; its editor