11 January 2006
DEFAMATION RULING A SETBACK FOR PRESS FREEDOM
In a judgment the Inter American Press Association (IAPA) calls a setback for press freedom, Paraguay's Supreme Court has ordered the director of a leading daily newspaper to pay a substantial fine for defaming a senator of the ruling Colorado Party, report IAPA and the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).
On 28 December 2005, the Court ordered Aldo Zuccolillo, director of "ABC Color", to pay 1.3 billion guarantíes (US$200,000) to Juan Carlos Galverna. Galverna alleged that Zuccolillo damaged his reputation by publishing articles that accused him of corruption, embezzlement and abuse of power.
Between June 1997 and December 1998, the newspaper published articles accusing Galverna of "accepting free stays at the Guaraní Hotel in Asunción, being on a list of high-risk bank loan borrowers, influence peddling, and giving political protection to the then president of the National Workers Bank, who was later sentenced to 10 years in jail for bleeding the bank dry," reports IAPA.
Zuccolillo faces 17 other lawsuits over articles his newspaper has published in recent years on official corruption, says CPJ.
Zuccolillo plans to appeal the Supreme Court ruling with the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, which has the authority to refer cases to the Inter-American Court of Human Rights (IACHR) in Costa Rica. The court is an arm of the Organization of American States and its decisions are binding on nations that have accepted its jurisdiction.
CPJ says the Supreme Court ruling seems to contradict an IACHR ruling in September 2004, which found that a criminal defamation conviction against Paraguayan politician Ricardo Canese violated the American Convention on Human Rights, a treaty Paraguay has ratified.
That ruling followed a landmark IACHR judgment in August 2004, which stated that Costa Rica violated the same convention when its courts convicted journalist Mauricio Herrera Ulloa of criminal defamation. The IACHR said critics of public officials must have "leeway in order for ample debate to take place on matters of public interest."
Visit these links:
- IAPA: http://tinyurl.com/cwsjo
- IAPA Report on Paraguay: http://tinyurl.com/abavl
- CPJ: http://www.cpj.org/news/2006/americas/Paraguay06jan06na.html
- CPJ Report on Paraguay:
http://www.cpj.org/attacks04/americas04/paraguay.html
- IACHR Ruling on Ricardo Canese: http://www.corteidh.or.cr/seriec/seriec_111_esp.doc
- American Convention on Human Rights: http://www.cidh.oas.org/Basicos/basic3.htm
- Inter-American Commission on Human Rights: http://www.cidh.oas.org/DefaultE.htm
- IFEX: http://www.ifex.org/en/content/view/full/236/
- Human Rights Network of Paraguay (CODEHUPY): http://www.codehupy.org/
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