Our cover graphic this time is of an acrylic painting by Kerima de Lescure, whose work is featured in our Arts section. The lead Business story is about an unbelievably generous gift, the controversial "equalization" deal that the Moscoso administration has given to the Panama Ports Company, the local subsidiary of Hong Kong-based Hutchison Whampoa.

It’s easy to get into a class warfare mode and complain about the "corporate welfare" inherent in the ports transaction. However, what the government and Hutchison have done is noted with alarm by some very decidedly capitalist observers, most prominently the economic analysts from international banks and the companies that rate Panama’s government bonds. It’s also interesting to see that the president who made the original ports deal, Ernesto Pérez Balladares, is calling for its cancellation in lieu of the renegotiated terms to which his successor agreed. This newspaper weighs in on the subject in this issue’s Editorial.

Mrs. Lescure’s daughter, Michelle Lescure, is also in the news this issue. A journalist who once edited El Siglo, Michelle was convicted of criminal defamation --- calumnia e injuria --- along with former El Siglo publisher Jaime Padilla Beliz and reporter Carmen Boyd Marciacq. This was not one of those all-to-common instances of a politician bringing a bogus charge to silence critical reporting, but a case arising from a wronged journalist’s complaint. In the gossip section of the sensationalist tabloid that’s now run by Panama’s former police chief, the host of this country’s top sports program was accused of abandoning a mentally ill relative under gruesome conditions.

The allegation was sufficiently wild and inaccurate to qualify as libelous by most nations’ standards. (Were this the United States, however, there would be a question about whether Lo Mejor del Boxeo’s Juan Carlos Tapia, who generally includes social and political commentary in his shows, would be a "public figure" who can be legally defamed so long as there is an absence of "actual malice.")

What surprises me is that in all the legal proceedings and all the news reporting on the case, the issue of invasion of privacy was missing from the discourse. Does somebody have a mental illness? Unless that fact bears some relationship to a matter of public interest, like if the person running the government starts hearing voices from another dimension, an individual’s health ought to be a private matter. I shouldn’t be surprised, however, in light of the lack of public outcry when La Prensa published the health records of more than two dozen cancer patients last year.

The truly outrageous aspect of the recent judgment, however, is that Michelle Lescure was not editor of El Siglo when the offending note was published and she had absolutely nothing to do with it. The paper’s management had neglected to update its official records of who was in charge, and the prosecutor and judge refused to see documents or hear witnesses that would have conclusively shown that Michelle had no connection with the offensive article. So now she has been sentenced to an 18-month prison term, and is obliged to spend money that she doesn’t have on lawyer bills for an appeal. Our Attorney General José Antonio Sossa has another innocent journalist’s scalp for his trophy collection, and our courts look even worse.

These days Michelle is the Panama correspondent for the World Press Review and Journalists Against Corruption. If you can help Michelle Lescure via contributions to defray her legal expenses or in any other way, send her an email to ask for further details.

Also in the News section, Willy Carrera looks into a legislator’s complaint about logging in the Darien. Plus, both in our News Briefs and Business & Economy Briefs we summarize stories that have dominated the headlines in the dailies, including a doctors’ strike, turmoil within MOLIRENA and the PRD and some interesting developments in the Legislative Assembly. Some of the news is even good.

Our Opinion and Letters sections range far and wide, as usual. I continue my series about Panamanian constitutional issues, George Soros has an interesting anti-corruption proposal and the discussion about how endangered freedom of expression is in the world continues.

Our Arts, Business and Community sections are larger than usual this time. Maybe that’s because May had five Fridays, which meant a three-week interval between the last issue and this one. Sparky the Wonder Dog continues to advise on our Fun page, and the latest scoop from the cultural front is that our canine counselor has published a book.

Does this larger-than-usual selection of stories mean that The Panama News is past its financial difficulties? Sadly, it doesn’t mean that at all. If you think that we should continue our work, you can help us get out of our hole by patronizing us with your advertising, buying our books or our special magazine-format print edition, or donating money or labor toward the cause. Contact us by email, or through snail mail at:

The light at the end of the tunnel is apparently not a train coming the other way, but it also looks to be a long way off. It hasn’t been and won’t be easy, but we’ll get by with a little help from our friends.

Eric Jackson
the editor

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