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The Panama Canal and freedom of expression
by Miguel Antonio Bernal

The history of Panama teaches us that during the 20th century each time the Panamanian people had to, in some manner, express their opinion about the Panama Canal, they saw their liberty of expression and their right to information restricted or suspended.

The clearest example of this we find in the actions perpetrated by the military dictatorship for "the approval" by plebiscite on the Carter-Torrijos Treaties: intimidation, censorship, jail, torture and exile were the order of the day. And everyone knows --- they do and we do --- that those legal instruments were never the object of a true debate, and much less a discussion with full participation of the populace. Democratic freedoms were curtailed early, and only some of them were restored, belatedly.

That "the right to freedom of expression is essential for the development of knowledge and of understanding among peoples," and that "when free debate about ideas and opinions is obstructed the freedom of expression and the effective development of the democratic process is limited," that hasn't been on the agenda of the majority of those who have exercised governmental functions during the recent administrations nor, regrettably, is it the conviction of the majority of those who direct, manage or control the communications media in Panama.

After many years of secrecy about the studies and their elaboration, the populace hasn't yet finished their start at knowing the mega-project to build a third set of locks that was recently presented by the national government. Now the direct attacks on freedom of expression and the right to information that all inhabitants of our national space must be able to exercise without any type of apprehension have commenced, without any pretenses.

The citizenry has been able to, early on, bear witness to the management, manipulation and control of information about the megaproject, its true authors, promoters and beneficiaries, its studies (technical or otherwise), documentation, etc. that is being openly carried out by the principal authorities of the executive branch and the Panama Canal Authority board of directors. The disparities and inequalities that this generates, and the decomposition of public information, make manifest the grave dangers that loom over such fragile freedom of expression that now exists.

The Electoral Prosecutor's Office, which by its constitutional mandate (Article 144, Section 1), has the function of safeguarding the political rights of the citizenry and the Public Ministry which must "watch over the official conduct of public officials" (Article 220, Section 3), have opted to remain complicitly silent in the fact of the violations that are perpetrated by functionaries of the government and the Panama Canal Authority board of directors.

Thus, according to information that has circulated, on instruction of Panama's ambassador in Washington, DC,  Federico Humbert Arias --- who previously was president of the board of directors of the La Prensa de Panama newspaper --- the current publisher of said medium Fernando Berguido sent, on May 9, a letter to journalist Maribel Cuervo de Paredes in which he prohibited her from being able to publish the weekly column that she had maintained in that daily.

With that prohibition, the directors of La Prensa add to the long list of well known Panamanian journalists, academics, intellectuals and professionals who are not allowed to exercise their freedom of expression in their pages. The decision taken is, without doubt, one more attack perpetrated by La Prensa's directors against the rights to information and to freedom of expression found in the Declaration of Principles by the Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression and in the Chapultepec Declaration. They have left behind the values that they once professed about freedom of expression and the right to information.

Journalist Maribel Cuervo de Paredes was until a little less than a year ago director of the Latin American Journalism Center (CELAP) and the anchor of the Confrontaciones television program on the Catholic Church's FETV television network. That program was shut down after warnings made for this purpose by the present Panamanian government, as became known at the time.

The censorship and expulsion of journalist Maribel Cuervo de Paredes by the La Prensa directors came at the moment when a huge propaganda campaign was begun by the Panamanian national government to impose a "yes" vote in the referendum that's being prepared to get approval for the construction of a third set of Panama Canal locks mega-project, a proposal supported from the start by the La Prensa directors and which was opposed by Cuervo de Paredes.

This attack on freedom of expression, perpetrated by the La Prensa directors, demonstrates a governmental trend that seeks to shut up those who oppose the third locks proposals and question the government's statements. These propositions have been principally defended by the La Prensa directors, who have, in just two recent weeks, received more than $350,000 in ad purchases by the Panama Canal Authority (as admitted on the ACP website, http://www.pancanal.com).

Miguel Antonio Bernal is a law professor at the University of Panama, host of the Alternativa radio show, president of the Colegio de Abogados Honor Tribunal (the national bar association's disciplinary committee), a member of the Violet Legion (an honor society of intellectuals named by French presidents) for his work as correspondent for Le Monde Diplomatique and a noted Panamanian human rights activist.