Guatemala has entered a high-risk area for freedom of expression and the free exercise of journalism in Latin America according to a study by the Inter-American Press Association (SIP).
According to him Chapultepec Index – commissioned by the IAPA – the situation in the Central American country is close on the scale to the seriousness of Venezuela, Nicaragua and Cuba, countries that have remained in the red in the three years that this study has been carried out.
In Guatemala, for example, remains imprisoned José Ruben Zamora, president of elPeriódico and there are legal proceedings open against other journalists.
The index places the countries on a color scale according to the situation regarding freedom of expression and of the press, and the colors range from gray to red, passing through green, yellow and purple.
By segmenting the situation of the media and journalists, the study has marked Mexico in red in as for impunity. That country closed 2022 with the highest number of journalists murdered in the 30 years that records have been kept, with at least 16 of the 42 communicators killed throughout the continent last year. This barometer is developed from the measurement of actions within the countries on the rights of access to information, guarantees for the exercise of journalism, respect for the integrity of journalists and the activity of the media.
“The index reflects the factors that influence press freedom according to four dimensions: Citizens informed and free to express themselves; Practice of journalism; Violence and impunity and Control of the media”, explained the IAPA when disseminating the result.
This barometer also measures the influence that the Legislative, Executive and Judicial branches have in the countries and how they can influence the guarantees of unrestricted information.
A “state policy”
Venezuelan journalist Carlos Roa, based in the United States and former director of the National College of Journalists of Venezuela, tells the voice of america that he regrets seeing his country “in the worst levels” of that indicator, and that it is clear that the situation “is part of a State policy.”
Roa reports that in the year just ended, 78 radio stations were closed in Venezuela by order of the National Telecommunications Commission.
“I invite our colleagues to observe the Venezuelan situation because it can become, as in fact has happened, that it is a model for other nations to repress freedom and journalistic practice,” he says.
However, at the beginning of last month, before the publication a report which registered 389 attacks against freedom of expression since the presidency of Alejandro Giammattei began, in 2020, the Guatemalan government assured that these questions are irresponsible and that “there is no censorship mechanism, since various information platforms publish multiple news daily criticism that often lacks veracity,” according to a report PA.
The IAPA, an organization that brings together hundreds of media outlets from all over the American continent, said that it contracted the Andrés Bello Catholic University (UCAB) of Venezuela to develop this report, which included a team of communication academics and other disciplines of the social sciences.
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