The report concludes that the president's verbal fusillades seem to have given the population and authorities license to attack journalists. Reporters were verbally and physically harassed on various occasions last year. In two examples of what Venezuelans have come to label "judicial terrorism," the courts blatantly violated due process guarantees in criminal defamation cases where three journalists were forced to go into hiding to avoid unwarranted arrest.
While concerns remained, Chávez did not resort to overt repression against the media last year. At the beginning of 2000, a group of journalists who were alarmed by Chávez's hostility to the press created an advocacy organization called the Asociación Civil Información y Libertad (ACIL). But ACIL was apparently inactive at year's end because the censorship that journalists feared had not come to pass.
FEBRUARY 9
Ben Amí Fihman, Exceso
LEGAL ACTION
Faitha Nahmens, Exceso
LEGAL ACTION
A judge ordered the detention of Fihman, editor of the monthly Exceso,
and Nahmens, a reporter with the magazine, in connection with an ongoing
criminal defamation case.
Ginebra Martínez de Falchi had filed suit against the two journalists
and Exceso in 1997, in response to an article by Nahmens in the
June 1997 issue of the magazine. Titled "Bad Blood," the piece recounted
the December 1996 murder of Casto Martínez, father of the plaintiff,
and his business links with fugitive former banker Folco Falchi, the plaintiff's
husband.
Fihman and Nahmens faced a prison sentence of six to 30 months, while
the paper faced a fine of 100 million bolivars (US$143,236). Exceso
offered Martínez space to reply to the allegations, but this offer
was declined.
From the start, the legal proceedings were marred by due-process violations.
Martínez's lawsuit failed to mention which parts of the Exceso
article were allegedly defamatory. And the investigation proceeded so
slowly that it passed the legal deadline (February 12, 1999) by which
it should have been either concluded or dropped.
In December 1999, Fihman and Nahmens filed an amparo (a writ that
asserts violations of individual freedoms by government agencies or the
judiciary) with the Supreme Court, urging that the case be dismissed on
the grounds that it dragged on past the legal deadline.
On February 9, while the Supreme Court appeal was still pending, a lower
court judge held a trial hearing that the two journalists failed to attend.
(Fihman claims they were never officially notified of the hearing.) That
same day, the judge issued a detention order to compel the journalists
to appear in court, whereupon they went into hiding.
On March 27, Fihman and Nahmens appealed to the Inter-American Commission
on Human Rights (IACHR) for injunctive relief. On April 3, the IACHR recommended
that all legal measures against the two journalists be stayed for a period
of six months. On April 8, Foreign Minister José Vicente Rangel
announced that his government would comply with the IACHR ruling.
Only then did the Supreme Court admit the amparo, according to
Fihman. On May 17, the Supreme Court ordered the lower court to hold hearings
on the question of whether the investigation had exceeded its legal time
limit. On September 4, after protracted legal maneuvers, the case was
finally dismissed.
Martínez appealed this decision on September 18. Her appeal was
rejected on October 13.
JULY 8
La Razón
LEGAL ACTION
Pablo López Ulacio, La Razón
IMPRISONED
López Ulacio, editor of the weekly La Razón, went
underground after boycotting hearings related to a prominent businessman's
criminal defamation suit against his paper. Prior to the editor's disappearance,
La Razón was twice barred from publishing information related
to the suit, and López Ulacio himself was twice placed under house
arrest.
The suit was filed by Tobías Carrero, a businessman with close
ties to President Hugo Chávez Frías and National Legislative
Assembly president Luis Miquilena. Carrero claimed that the honor and
reputation of his insurance company, Multinacional de Seguros, had been
damaged in September 1999 articles by La Razón journalist
Santiago Alcalá.
Alcalá, author of a column called "El Quirófano" ("The Operating
Room"), reported that in February 1999, the state-owned Guarantees and
Banking Deposits Fund (Fogade) failed to solicit competitive bids before
awarding major contracts to Multinacional de Seguros. Alcalá raised
similar questions about the September 1999 auction of the state-owned
radio group YVKE Mundial to four radio stations controlled by Carrero.
The suit was filed under Article 444 of the Criminal Code, which allows
judges to impose criminal penalties, including jail sentences, in defamation
lawsuits brought by private individuals.
On June 30, Carrero's lawyer, Mayra Vernet, filed a petition to close
down La Razón with presiding judge David Pérez. Pérez
rejected the petition but issued an order prohibiting the newspaper from
publishing information related to the suit.
On July 8, López Ulacio was placed under house arrest after he
failed to attend a series of court hearings related to the suit. In a
telephone interview from his home, López Ulacio said he had boycotted
the hearings to protest what he believed were tainted proceedings.
On July 10, Chief Court Inspector René Molina called on Judge Pérez
to recuse himself from the case, citing his "evident partiality." Pérez
complied two days later, and the case was transferred to a new judge,
Graudy Villegas.
Villegas revoked the house-arrest order against López Ulacio on
July 13, but continued to bar La Razón from publishing information
related to the lawsuit. López Ulacio's lawyers subsequently asked
Judge Villegas to overturn Judge Pérez's order. Judge Villegas
refused, but scheduled a new court hearing for August 4.
López Ulacio also boycotted this hearing, and then became a fugitive
when Judge Villegas ordered him placed under house arrest.
López Ulacio's lawyer, Omar Estacio, argued that the house-arrest
order violated "basic rules of criminal procedure, which do not expressly
prescribe house arrest for contempt." He also claimed to have received
anonymous threats for defending López Ulacio.
The case was later brought before the Inter-American Commission on Human
Rights (IACHR). On November 8, CPJ wrote a letter to IACHR executive secretary
Jorge Taiana and IACHR special rapporteur for freedom of expression Santiago
A. Canton, arguing that López Ulacio could not hope to receive
a fair trial in Venezuela. On February 8, the IACHR granted injunctive
relief.
At press time, the journalist was living in exile in Costa Rica.