Andres Oppenheimer
Here is why we should be more worried than usual about press freedoms in the Americas: several democratically elected authoritarian presidents are seeing their popularity rates plummet, and are clamping down on independent media ahead of upcoming elections.
It's happening in several countries, but nowhere as clearly as in
There, narcissist-Leninist President
Seventy percent of Venezuelans think the country is heading in the wrong direction, according to a recent poll by
Not surprisingly, Chávez is cracking down on Globovisión -- the last television network that openly criticizes the government after the closing of the RCTV network's cable signal in January, and RCTV's air broadcasts in 2007 -- as we get closer to key
While the election rules are heavily slanted to favor government candidates, the election could result in a highly visible opposition in
TAKING IT ALL
Earlier this month, Chávez lashed out at his country's courts on national television for failing to take action against
Simultaneously, Chávez called for stepping up legal actions against Nelson Mezerhane, one of the biggest stockholders of Globovisión, whose Banco Federal was recently taken over by the government. Referring to Zuloaga and Mezerhane, Chávez suggested
Zuloaga's attorneys in
Shortly before his most recent actions to silence Globovisión and RCTV, Chávez had stripped 32 radio stations of their licenses because of alleged irregularities in their registrations, and threatened to cancel the broadcasting concessions of 200 more.
But
PRIZE AND PENALTY
The presidents of
A study released last year by
Several other reports talk about
"The days of formal censorship boards in
My opinion: It's time for the OAS and nongovernment watchdog groups to expand their definition of censorship, going beyond the necessary investigations into the murder or legal actions against critical journalists. They should include the new -- and more subtle -- ways of silencing the press, from going after media owner's other businesses to the discretionary use of government advertising.
As strange as it sounds, the new rule of the game among aspiring presidents-for-life in
Available at Amazon.com:
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(C) 2010 Andres Oppenheimer