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The popularity of Latin
America's News Media
By John Virtue
The recent bumbles
by the U.S. news media have highlighted two things: how unpopular
the American print and broadcast outlets are and, by comparison,
the great prestige enjoyed by their Latin American counterparts.
Gustavo Gorriti,
a Peruvian journalist who is associate editor of La Prensa
of Panama, recently wrote an article on the Op-ed page of The
New York Times noting that polls show public respect for the
news media in Latin America ranks alongside that shown the Catholic
Church.
"It is
all the more remarkable because most Latin American countries lack
a mainstream press bound by the common standards of independent
news-gathering, fact-checking, writing and editing upheld by much
of the American press," he wrote.
This respect
for the news media was quickly recognized by the International Media
Center at Florida International University when it became involved
in training Latin American journalists a decade ago. Some polls
even showed three sectors of society enjoyed equal public support:
the church, the media and the armed forces. The inclusion of the
military reflects how tenuous the roots of democracy are in some
countries.
While the news
media enjoy public support, we found, in various studies, that individual
journalists do not. This was a major complaint of journalists we
interviewed over a five-month period in the five Andean Pact countries.
The final 235-page report, published in 1995 under the title "Journalists
in the Andes," had this to say on the subject:
"Lack of
respect by owners, those they report on and the public as a whole
is considered a major problem by some journalists in all the Andean
countries except Ecuador.
"'The most
serious problem we face is the lack of respect from politicians
and the owners,' said a 32-year-old reporter for a Bolivian newspaper.
'They treat us like laborers.'
"Some journalists
in Colombia link what they feel is a lack of respect to the image
created by veteran colleagues who accept bribes and payoffs.
"'We have
to fight to overcome the bad impression left by the old-time journalists,'
said a 27-year-old lifestyle section editor in Bogota.
"'Journalists
get no respect from society,' said a 23-year-old female magazine
reporter in Lima.
"'I believe
the biggest problem is the low regard in which journalists are held,
despite the importance of our role in informing the public,' said
a 44-year-old sports writer for a Caracas newspaper. 'Many times
we're the victim of abuse by various sectors of society.'"
Studies done
in Central America showed similar complaints of lack of respect.
How can the
public support for the news media be reconciled with the lack of
respect for individual journalists?
We believe that
the Colombian journalists touched on a key issue: bribery. While
the public respects the media as a whole, they feel that many journalists
are corrupt.
That politicians
show little respect for journalists is not surprising, because our
investigations have shown that governments and politicians are the
greatest corrupters of journalists. He who offers a bribe cannot
fail to have scorn for the one accepting it.
Gorriti mentioned
the fact that the Latin American news media do not do as much investigative
reporting as the U.S. media. The team he leads at La Prensa
is one of the best in Latin America.
Much of the
criticism of the U.S. press has its origin in investigative reporting
and the competition to be first with the news. That was the case
with a recent CNN-Time magazine report on the use of deadly
sarin gas against American deserters in Vietnam which was unproven.
The Cincinnati Enquirer made a multi-million-dollar settlement
to Chiquita, after the banana company stated that the investigative
reporter had illegally tapped into internal voice-mail messages.
The watchdog
role of the press in a democracy requires investigative reporting,
more so in Latin American than in the United States, Canada or in
the countries of Western Europe. That's because in there are congressional
oversight committees and non-governmental organizations that check
for corruption in those countries. Where such entities exist in
Latin America, they usually don't enjoy the necessary independence,
so the role of the press becomes more important.
The news media
in Latin America will start to lose its popularity once investigative
reporting becomes more widespread and those targeted complain more.
Most Latin American countries now have reporters who belong to Investigative
Reporters and Editors (IRE), a U.S.-based group which has set up
a training center in Mexico.
By the way,
the journalists who founded the organization chose the name because
of its acronym, IRE, which means "ira" in Spanish. That's
the emotion that propels many investigative reporters as they root
out corruption. It's also the emotion they can create among readers,
listeners and viewers.
Yet the Latin
American media do not enjoy the legal protection for their investigations
common in the West. Quite the contrary. There are press laws on
the books in all countries and proposed legislation in some that
would further impede press freedom.
Strong-arm methods
used by dictators have been replaced by more subtle forms of coercion,
like harassing income-tax audits, denial of import permits, the
threats of non-renewal of broadcast licenses and the use of official
advertising to reward and punish.
The above factors,
including those unknown to the readers, listeners and viewers, can
affect the public perception of the news media when polling is done.
The popularity
of the news media can be misleading.
(John
Virtue, is the publisher of Pulso del Periodismo
and the deputy director of the International Media Center at Florida
International University. A native of Canada, he spent 17 years
with United Press International in Latin America before becoming
executive editor of the daily newspaper El Mundo, San Juan, Puerto
Rico.)
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