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Deputies pass new press gag laws as part of pro-corruption package

by Eric Jackson

On St. Valentine's Day, National Assembly deputies gathered at the Plaza Paitilla Inn that's now infamous for the death of prostitute Vanessa Márquez and the ensuing alteration of the crime scene and manipulation of the Judicial Technical Police and coroner's investigations. Under attack from many directions for the contents of proposed changes to the nation's Penal Code --- things like weakening the laws against rape, domestic violence and child abuse, making it harder to investigate or prosecute judges or legislators for corruption --- the legislators drew their angriest protest from a group of journalists.

The reporters, photographers, editors, TV news anchors, radio talk show hosts, columnists and media owners converged on the hotel, some by marching down Avenida Balboa, to protest three proposed new gag laws.

One of these, Article 187, would ban the publication or disclosure of any document not specifically written for publication. It would essentially ban most investigative journalism, which usually starts out when someone with inside access and a conscience or a grudge comes to a reporter with revealing documents to back a sordid story.

Another, Article 189, would ban the publication of any photograph taken from the Internet or otherwise obtained which likewise is not specifically intended for publication by the medium in question. For example, it would criminalize a practice in which The Panama News engaged by taking a photograph of President Torrijos using the Cabinet Room to promote the gold mining stock of former Cocle Governor Richard Fifer's company, with Fifer facing charges of embezzling public funds at the time (and still, apparently) from a corporate website and publishing it on this website; and by using another photo of the president and first lady promoting Prime Forestry, a business closed by Swiss authorities from its fraudulent practices and underworld ties, that was also taken from a corporate website.

A third proposal, Article 422, would criminalize the publication of any political, diplomatic or police information considered "reserved" and pertaining in some undefined way to "national security."

The protesters, one of whom was  this reporter, demanded the elimination of articles 187 and 189 and the rewriting of Article 422 to require a previous classification of the secret information and a real and imminent danger that requires such secrecy.

The following day the PRD caucus of the National Assembly --- 41 persons, most of them suplentes (alternates) rather than the deputies themselves --- formed a quorum of the 78-member legislature and approved the new Penal Code on the second of three required assembly votes. They left for Carnival, with government offices closed for the next six days and the specific text of what they did unpublished. However, certain details leaked out.

Article 187 was retained but Article 189 was discarded. Article 422 was modified to exclude political and police information but retain the ban on publishing diplomatic information and the problematic undefined terms "reserved" and "national security."

Also added was a new Article 188-A. This prohibits "spying, following or pursuit" except as authorized by undefined authorities. The new provision would, for example, make what the Spanish Antena 3 television network did to Madame Thonya's child prostitution ring a crime. Antena 3 used a hidden camera to record negotiations by an undercover reporter for the procurement of sex with an underaged girl, and that led to a scandal about a pedophilia business that had gone on for years despite several citizens' complaints to police about it.

And what else did the legislature do after their Valentine's Day meeting at the Plaza Paitilla Inn? They created a new statute of limitations for acts of political corruption. If a public official takes a bribe or kickback and it's not discovered and prosecuted within one year, there would be no possibility of any legal action. Plus, the legislature lowered the penalties for the crime of unexplained accumulation of wealth while holding a public office, which is the whole point of many of the deputies' public lives in the first place.

After Carnival the proposed Penal Code will come back for a third debate and vote, and then the president would have to sign or veto the measure. The Inter-American Press Association and the Paris-based Reporters Without Borders have lent international support to the Panamanian journalists opposing the proposed new gag laws.

In a column published in La Estrella, the president of the National Assembly's Government and Justice Committee, Raúl E. Rodríguez A., defended the new gag laws as enforcement of the constitutional right to privacy and anti-kidnapping measures. President Torrijos, who appointed the commission that came up with the controversial Penal Code proposal, was out of the country and unavailable for comment on the latest pro-corruption actions of the Democratic Revolutionary Party that he heads.

Assembly approves new press gag laws on second reading
Church weighs in against weakening domestic violence laws

Panama City Carnival woes