Colombia News Media
Cartagena
Courtesy Lloyd W. Mansfield
Freedom of the press and broadcasting were deeply
rooted
cultural traditions in Colombia. Governments generally
respected
constitutionally guaranteed rights of freedom of speech
and the
press. One exception was the Rojas Pinilla regime, which
suspended
them. As a result of the interparty political conflict
that
characterized Colombia through much of the twentieth
century,
civilian governments also frequently censored the
opposition press,
either through harassment by political activists or
through
government-issued state of siege decrees. Nevertheless, in
the
1980-88 period, freedom of speech and the press were
respected.
In 1987 all newspapers, other than the official
government
organ, Diario Oficial, were privately owned and
under no
governmental restraints. The press published a wide
variety of
political views and often vigorously criticized the
government and
its leaders. Almost all news outlets were
affiliated--officially or
semiofficially--with either the Liberal or Conservative
party. The
urban middle and upper classes, for whom the press was a
vital
instrument of influence, purchased most newspapers.
Traditionally,
newspapers were the most credible sources of political
information,
as well as the major organs of political debate. In
contrast,
Colombians viewed radio and television as primarily
entertainment
or cultural media. Nevertheless, some journalists used the
press as
a vehicle to political power. For example, television
journalist
Andrés Pastrana was elected mayor of Bogotá in 1988.
Colombian journalists were generally well trained, and
the top
columnists had sophisticated worldviews. At least five
daily
newspapers, as well as a number of weekly news magazines,
served
Bogotá. Two morning newspapers, El Espectador and
El
Tiempo, each had circulations of over 200,000 on
weekdays in
the late 1980s. The Sunday circulation of El Tiempo
reached
350,000. Although both were affiliated with the PL, El
Espectador tended to support the New Liberalism
Movement
faction of the party. El Tiempo, one of Latin
America's
leading dailies, provided comprehensive and sophisticated
coverage
of international news. The small El Siglo and
businessoriented La República were both affiliated with the
Conservatives. El Siglo represented the party's
right wing.
Its editor, Alvaro Gómez, a kidnap victim himself, took a
highprofile stand against drug traffickers and Marxist
guerrillas. A
new afternoon daily, 5 P.M., appeared in Bogotá in
the mid1980s , with an independent and nonpartisan orientation. In
August
1988, former President Misael Pastrana Borrero launched a
Bogotá
daily, La Prensa, in an apparent attempt to compete
with
El Tiempo and El Espectador and to
consolidate his
control over the Social Conservatives.
Colombia had more than forty regional newspapers,
including
several with a daily circulation of more than 100,000
copies. The
newspaper with the largest circulation outside the capital
was
Medellín's conservative El Colombiano (123,700).
Both El
Colombiano and Cali's El Occidente (53,000)
took strong
antidrug stances. El Colombiano's editor, Juan
Gómez
Martínez, was elected mayor of Medellín in the March 1988
elections. The most widely read weekly general news
magazines in
Colombia were Cromos (65,000), Semana
(40,000), the
Conservative Guión (35,000), and the Liberal
Nueva
Frontera (20,000), all published in Bogotá.
Colombia had a flourishing and modern printing and
publishing
industry in the 1980s. In the 1983-87 period, Colombia led
Latin
America in the export of Spanish-language publications,
ranking
second only to Spain. In 1986 Colombia sold more than
US$59 million
in books and other publications to thirty-two countries;
this was
double the 1979 sales. A relatively small group of five
printers
and ten publishers spearheaded the export drive. The
Andean Common
Market (Ancom), also known as the Andean Group (Grupo
Andino)--
primarily Venezuela--accounted for 55.3 percent of
Colombia's
exports of printed material and remained the industry's
principal
market. The Hispanic population in the United States
absorbed about
20 percent of Colombia's publishing exports in 1986. Of
the 1,100
entities in Colombia dedicated to publishing, about 400
were large
scale. The two leading Colombian publishers were Editorial
Oveja
Negra and Carvajal.
The state regulated the broadcast media. The
Telecommunications
Division of the Ministry of Communications administered
and
controlled radio and television broadcasting. The
government-run
television and broadcasting network, the National
Institute of
Radio and Television (Instituto Nacional de Radio y
Televisión--
Inravisión), controlled three television stations: two
commercial
and one educational. A semiautonomous agency administered
by a
board of directors appointed by the president, Inravisión
leased
time to private companies and also transmitted as National
Radio
and Television of Colombia (Radiotelevisora Nacional de
Colombia--
RNC) and National Radio Station (Radio Cadena
Nacional--RCN).
Colombia's largest and most influential radio station,
Colombian
Radio Station (Cadena Radial Colombiano--Caracol), was
pro-Liberal,
whereas RCN was pro-Conservative. The state imposed some
guidelines
to ensure equal time for political candidates. For
example, the
government ensured that each of four announced candidates
running
in the 1986 presidential campaign received equal time for
a series
of national television appearances. Beginning in 1987, all
legally
registered political parties had access by law to national
television; a different party was allotted ten minutes of
time each
week night, under an alphabetical rotation system.
The state reserved the right, in effect, to censor the
telecommunications media in a national emergency. A press
law, in
effect since 1959, provided for freedom of the press in
time of
internal peace. This freedom, however, had to be balanced
by a
sense of responsibility to help maintain tranquillity. The
law
provided for the prohibition of news threatening national
security
and for censorship before publication during times of
crisis. In
issuing a decree on terrorism in January 1988, President
Barco
noted the state's constitutional right to control
telecommunications media if considered necessary to
reestablish
public order in a crisis. That month Barco also announced
the
Statute for the Defense of Democracy and the amendment of
habeas
corpus procedures. The statute caused general concern
within the
media that the new measures could lead to press
censorship. El
Tiempo editorialized, however, that the statute should
have
been even stiffer.
In addition to the statutory regulations, an unofficial
regulatory apparatus--consisting of political parties and
economic
interest groups, including financial conglomerates and
drug
traffickers--exerted strong pressure on the news media.
For
example, a powerful financial conglomerate, the Great
Colombian
Group (Grupo Grancolombiano), reportedly waged a campaign
of
intimidation in the early 1980s against El
Espectador by
withholding advertising in retaliation for reporters'
probes into
its business practices. Drug traffickers took more drastic
measures
to intimidate the press. For example, in 1983 a newspaper
journalist in Buenaventura was machine gunned to death
after he had
written a series of reports accusing officials of
involvement with
drug trafficking. His editor also was assassinated that
year. Hitmen hired by the Medellín Cartel assassinated El
Espectador's nationally recognized director, Guillermo
Cano, in
December 1986, shortly after his newspaper published a
series of
reports on the cartel. In October 1987, columnist Daniel
Samper
Pizano of El Tiempo fled the country after his name
appeared
on a death list. Drug traffickers assassinated
approximately thirty
journalists between 1983 and 1987. They were also blamed
for
kidnapping television journalist Andrés Pastrana in early
1988.
The media themselves have exercised self-restraint in
times of
crisis. For example, in response to M-19 demands for
publicity in
exchange for releasing Alvaro Gómez, the owners and
directors of
Colombia's major news media collectively agreed in July
1988 to
exercise self-censorship when reporting on terrorist acts.
They
banned the transmission of all texts, interviews, and
contacts with
"kidnappers and terrorists" and with the kidnap victims.
Data as of December 1988
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