One of the most effective instruments in the fight against corruption is freedom of expression. It is thus not strange that in so many regimes, within the corrupt governments or acting with them, presumptuous bureaucrats control or attack freedom of expression and reject those procedures that guarantee access to information that the government has.

In Panama there's a marked tendency, on the part of certain authorities in the distinct organs of the state and of some high-up functionaries, to try to make us forget that freedom of expression is the most precious and fundamental right in all societies based upon democratic principles.

Time and again they attempt to deny the fact that plural and independent communications media are essential for a free society and a responsible government. It follows that when they exert pressure of any kind upon the communications media, we have to reject them as unacceptable, because they also attack open debate about matters of public interest that must exist among us.

In the past 20 months we have seen how in Panama we have not been lacking in attempts to unduly limit the right to free expression, and how that exacerbates the actiosn of certain authorities who forget that without freedom of expression one can't have freedom, because information is the oxygen of democracy and freedom of expression is essential to fight corruption.

This government seems to have chosen to realize the greater part of its activities outside the view of public opinion. It's enough to recall the HP-1430 helicopter affair, the use of National Air Service fuel to fill the tanks of private aircraft, the circuit funds and the secret funds.

More recently, the Comptroller General of the Republic complained that Channel 13's videography showed, before public opinion, the nocturnal visit --- immediately after his appearance before prosecutors --- that Carlos "Tito" Afú made to his house "is part of a campaign against his person." The comptroller's words were: "The message that I send them is to go on with their campaign because, at a given moment, they're going to have to explain to the country why they are the beneficiaries and concessionaires of a series of sinecures and situations that they're evidently not going to be able to justify."

It's impossible to ignore such intimidation, which affects not only the owners of Channel 13, but also each and every Panamanian citizen who believes in, advocates or fights for freedom of expression and who rejects the rampant corruption. How can the Comptroller General of the Republic, whose mission is supposed to be "to oversee public finances," dedicate himself to intimidate or attempt to control the media, or the journalists, when they reveal information that compromises him, as occured previously with the daily newspaper El Panama America?

We citizens must repudiate such actions, from whoever they may come, and, because the Public Ministry isn't going to make him answer for his threats and blackmail, we must therefore redouble our civic actions to contain and reject this systematic attempt on the part of the authorities to limit criticism of the government. Let's not let today's persecutors forget that freedom of expression permits people to scrutinize the government's actions and forms the true basis for an appropriate and informed debate about such actions --- especially when these actions are guided and inspired by corruption.

(Dr. Miguel Antonio Bernal is a law professor, attorney and radio show host.)

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