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INSIDECOSTARICA.COM
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CENTRAL AMERICA
NEWS BRIEFS
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Tuesday 10 May 2011 |
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Panama
Government
Hate
Campaign
Gets
International
Hit
Panama -
A
Panamanian
government
“hate
Campaign”
against
local
media
following
publication
of
WikiLeaks
revelations
has been
denounced
in Paris
by
Reporters
Sans
Frontieres,
"Reporters
Without
Borders
(RSF) .
The
problem
began,
according
to RSF,
when
Panama’s
La
Prensa
published
cables
in which
the U.S.
Embassy
in
Panama
pointed
out
alleged
drug
trafficking
links of
the
administrator
of the
Tourism
Authority
of
Solomon
Shamah,
and with
Colombian
businessman
David
Murcia
Guzmán
awaiting
sentencing
in the
U.S. for
"money
laundering"
and
already
sentenced
in
Colombia
to 30
years
incarceration
for
running
a Ponzi
scheme.
"The
hate
campaign
waged
against
journalists
seems to
be the
answer
to a
series
of
revelations
of
WikiLeaks
disseminated
by the
media.
Such
attacks
in the
form of
defamatory
video
clips of
employees
and
associates
of La
Prensa,
the
organization
said in
a
statement
.
In these
videos,
according
to RSF,
they
stigmatize
the
links of
some
journalists
with the
Democratic
Revolutionary
Party (PRD),
the main
opposition
Democratic
Change
which
belongs
to its
founder
and
financer,
President
Ricardo
Martinelli.
"This
approach
supports
the
argument
that
this is
the
revenge
of the
circles
of power
against
the
media
because
of
information
disclosed
by
WikiLeaks"
said the
NGO.
The
organization
considered
that
such
information
is of
public
interest
and
called
for
Panama’s
justice
system
to
research
"the
origin
of the
coarse
videos
and find
out if
they are
motivated
politically.
"
RSF went
on to
comment
that in
Panama
the
situation
of press
freedom
has been
“in
clear
decline
since
Martinelli
came to
power,"
and
cited
cases
ranging
from the
arrest
of
journalists
to the
senseless
loss of
their
right to
exercise
their
profession.
While
government
leaders,
including
Shamah,
have
kept a
low
profile
since
the
allegations
were
published,
there
has been
a blitz
of TV
advertising
on
stations
with
government
connections,
and
justice
minister
Raul
Mulino
has
appeared
on local
broadcast
media
outlets
trying
to
deflect
images
of
allegedg
overnment
involvement
in
corrupt
practices, |
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Source
Apdo. 2133-1000, San José, Costa
Rica
Tel: (506) 2231 3205 / (506) 8399
9642
Fax: (506) 2232 6337
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