Letters to the editor

July 18, 2002

Eric Jackson, Editor
The Panama News
Panama, Republic of Panama

Dear Mr. Jackson:

The Panama News continues to publish false and misleading information on the activities of the Harris Organization. Unable to conduct normal business and frustrated by the inability to obtain fair and equitable redress to criminal complaints filed and prosecuted against a former in-house lawyer and his associates, we have reduced our operations in Panama and relocated the majority of our activities to other countries that provide a greater level of judicial security. Even you Mr. Jackson will admit that in Panama, justice is selective.

Anyone attempting to contact the company that has been retained to handle our remaining affairs in Panama in Bella Vista can do so at 507.264.2746. Our clients have been notified of our move and decision to diversify our activities away from Panama. We will continue to provide international financial advice and asset protection from other nations where the judicial system actually functions.

Your statement that we own a private jet is false. A company that we assisted in arranging financing owns a King Air turboprop that is chartered by any number of clients including the US Embassy without our knowledge or participation.

Please keep in mind that passengers on private charters need to be cleared by immigration and customs. If immigration and customs fail to do their job in Panama, can that be blamed on the licensed private charter operator? Was American Airlines blamed for Mohammed Atta boarding the plane?

I have not obtained Nicaraguan citizenship and am not aware of any criminal charges in the United States. I include a letter by the DEA that is self explanatory.

I sincerely hope that you publish the letter and this note in your publication with equal prominence.

Laying off more than 100 employees in Panama was painful, but a necessary measure in light of what has transpired since La Prensa and journalists like yourself worked with David Marchant to engage in a systematic smear campaign. This campaign which started in 1998 was based on lies, innuendo and half-truths following our filing of criminal charges against Gilberto Boutin.

I do not expect good press coverage, but I do expect that journalists try to report stories in a fair and impartial manner.

If you did, maybe The Panama News could become a financially solvent enterprise. A financial shaky journalist could be tempted to alter his opinion to the highest bidder.

In the future, feel free to contact me to check your facts with properly structured questions rather than open ended rumours requesting my comment. I hope that my comment now are NOT simply colour to be written off later as dribble in order to "calibrate" and "re-target" an attack for yourself or others.

In spite of my personal feelings, you are welcome to visit with us and you will discover that I am not the S.O.B or the crook you have portrayed me to your readers as part of your systematic programme of character assassination.

Dear Eric,

I was surprised to read the last story you wrote on Marc Harris. You got your facts wrong and the report is way out of line. Harris has moved some of his operations to Nicaragua, frustrated by Panama’s lack of due process. He has not become a Nicaraguan citizen and he continues to maintain an office in Panama. He had to lay off more than 100 employees in Panama as part of a reorganization plan. In house lawyers that used to work for him illegally seized millions of dollars of his properties and assets. They face criminal prosecution, but their contacts in the Supreme Court have delayed el llamamiento a juicio. Federico Espina, one of the co-conspirators, was recently denounced by the three DRP magistrates for death threats. Lets see how long it takes the Ministerio Publico to investigate those grave accusations. You and I do not see eye to eye on some subjects, but I have always respected your journalistic integrity. Why dont you contact Harris directly and interview him in a fair and impartial manner like I have done in the past. Hear his side of the story before joinng the Gustavo Gorriti brigade, with its yellow journalism and smear tactics that give news reporting a bad name.

Mr. Terry Semel, Chairman & CEO
Yahoo! Inc.
701 First Avenue
Sunnyvale, California 94089
United States

Paris, 16 July 2002

Reporters Without Borders wishes to express its consternation following the announcement that the Chinese language version of the Yahoo! web site is among the 300 web sites and Internet Access Providers that have signed the self-censorship pact drawn up by the Chinese government.

The "self-discipline Pact" submitted to the operators on 16 March 2002 by the Chinese Internet Association, and signed by your local representative, is nothing more than a further escalation of the authorities' attempt to control the circulation of information on the Net, and to put a gag on any form of criticism or any exercising of the right to freedom of expression.

In signing this "Pact," Yahoo! has agreed "not to produce or disseminate harmful documents or any information that could jeopardize national security or social stability; to infringe laws and regulations; to spread false information, superstition or obscenity." The text also stipulates "the web sites' cooperation in the fight against Internet crime and the failure to comply with copyright laws."

Reporters Without Borders asks you to seriously consider revoking this decision and withdrawing your signature, and urges you to reject this practice of self-censorship of the content of your web site.

By giving up your right to the freedom of expression, by hampering the circulation of information on the Net, by depriving your clients of a rich and varied content, you are demolishing the very foundations of the Internet and of democracy. And you are going against the very history of your own enterprise.

By its very nature and since its inception, the Internet has been a vector for the transmission of information and of knowledge, of free exchanges between citizens, peoples and cultures; an area of freedom of expression; a weapon against censorship. And Yahoo! has always defended its image as an "historic" operator in the development of the Web; a pioneer fiercely protective of its independence and that of the web sites hosted on its portals --- including controversial web sites.

Reporters Without Borders has, in the not so distant past, defended you --- when the controversy over the auction of Nazi memorabilia on one of your sites was in full swing in France. Our organization did that in the name of the total freedom from which the Internet should benefit.

Reporters Without Borders also fights for the right of Chinese Internet users and operators to enjoy that same freedom. And it has to be recognized that this is not the situation today.

The Chinese government has been trying to control the Net since 1997. After having attempted, in vain, to confine the Internet community within its national borders, it then adopted a policy of censorship and self-censorship; of controlling, filtering and spying on web sites and Internet users; a widespread policy of arrests and convictions of cyber-dissidents.

Today, 22 of these are behind bars, simply for having downloaded documents about democracy or for having criticized the authorities or the Communist Party. Dozens of international media or human rights organizations' web sites cannot be accessed from China. For a number of months now, the Internet police and local authorities have been trying to eradicate Internet cafés. Several thousand of these have been forced to shut down. They will only be allowed to reopen if they submit to the government's demands, notably that of installing spyware products on their computers.

Is this really the kind of cyberspace in which Yahoo wants to develop its activities? Is it to enslaved Internet users, whose every move and gesture is controlled, that Yahoo! intends to offer its services? We sincerely hope not.

We strongly urge you, therefore, to denounce the signing of this "Pact" and to work, on the contrary, towards the democratic opening-up of the Internet in China. If you fail to do this, the Internet community will have to record that Yahoo! is no longer a "free" operator, attached to freedom of expression on the Internet.

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