business & economy

Said court order is remarkable and unusual for two main reasons.

First, as to the media it was ex parte, that is, it was applied to the nation's print and broadcast media without those businesses being made parties to the court case and giving them an opportunity to be heard and defend their interests. Yes, there were de facto bans of similar character during the dictatorship --- publish the wrong thing and without notification or any pretense of a right to defend in court you'd get a visit from Noriega's boys, who'd smash up your newsroom. But this sort of sweeping ban without an opportunity to defend has never been imposed in the post-invasion era.

Second, this ban is not about protecting a company name from infringement or even a questionable prior restraint on publication of false and defamatory things about a person --- it's a ban on dicussing the actions of a public figure, the former director of the National Port Authority, a current presidential advisor, the manager of PRD presidential front runner Balbina's campaign, the president's cousin Hugo Torrijos. And it's not a ban on discussing with whom he sleeps, what substances he may use, where he lives or other such private matters --- it's about allegations that he has abused his position of influence with the government to gain advantage for a business he owns.

Panama Pilots Services Corporation (PSSC), the named defendant, is a consortium of three companies and its pilots are for the most part off-duty Panama Canal pilots who guide ships into and out of the Manzanillo Bay commercial ports of Manzanillo International Terminal (Stevedoring Services of America) and Colon Container Terminal (Evergreen).

But Hugo Torrijos founded Caribbean Pilots Incorporated (CPI) and set about to take PSSC's business and hire their pilots away. He hired Captain Henry Pino, who had been ousted as manager of PSSC, for a post with CPI.

There have ensued some confrontations between the rival companies. In what is alleged to be an attempted contract hit, Pino suffered bullet wounds to his arm and hand, and he has blamed PSSC for death threats against himself and other CPI employees. PSSC has accused the Panama Canal pilots who have signed on with CPI of violating Panama Canal Authority regulations by failing to get prior permission to moonlight, and alleged that CPI is violating international maritime safety rules by among other things hiring unqualified pilots.

Torrijos, meanwhile, has been embroiled in maritime scandals for a number of years. Most notably there was the PECC affair, wherein a company apparently owned at least in part by then-President Ernesto Pérez Balladares was awarded a contract to maintain the nation's buoys and lighthouses by the old ports authority that Torrijos headed at the time. The paper trail, which was published in La Prensa, clearly led to the former president and to the authority's number two man, but not directly to Hugo Torrijos himself. In a series of controversial decisions the ensuing civil and criminal cases against Torrijos and the others were thrown out on procedural grounds.