Freedom of Expression

Paraguay

PRINCIPLE 9 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Murder, kidnapping, intimidation of and/or threats to social communicators, as well as the material destruction of communications media)

 25.              On April 20, journalist Bernardo Vera Roa of radio Tavaguá FM in Ciudad del Este, to the east of Asunción, was the victim of a kidnapping by three persons, torture, and death threats. While he was held, it was demanded of him that he reveal the addresses of three social leaders who he had interviewed. Vera Roa was released the next morning.[1]

 26.              On May 20, 2004, the daily ABC Color received an anonymous phone call on the alleged placement of an explosive artifact at the newspaper’s offices, which turned out to be false.[2]

 27.              On July 29, 2004, photographer Daniel Duarte of the daily La Nación was physically assaulted, his equipment destroyed, and his material taken after covering a political meeting in Asunción. His assailants were said to have been youth leaders from the Colorado party.[3]

PRINCIPLES 10 AND 11 OF THE DECLARATION OF PRINCIPLES ON FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION (Use of defamation laws by public officials and desacato laws)

 28.              In February 2004, journalists Nacha Sánchez and Mabel Rehnfeldt, of the daily ABC Color, were sued by former Paraguayan President Juan Carlos Wasmosy, who also sought compensation for moral injury in the amount of US$10 million. Sánchez and Rehnfeldt published a series of articles on the handling of fuel during the Wasmosy administration. In April, the newspaper filed a motion to dismiss the suit.[4]

 PROGRESS

 29.              On May 23, 2004, the Court of Appeals overturned the order to pay a fine of US$15,000 imposed, in October 2003, by Judge Dionisio Nicolás Frutos on the director of the daily ABC Color, Aldo Zuccolillo, in an action brought by former minister Juan Ernesto Villamayor for publications related to a financial scandal at the Banco Nacional de Trabajadores. In releasing the director of ABC of the punishment, it was considered that the complaint was brought by a public official, and that the publications called into question referred to a matter of general interest. According to the judgment, the newspaper’s publications (which date back to 1999) could not constitute the crime “because the media, based on their function of providing information, are within their right to disseminate all kinds of news.”[5]

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