Despite the return of democracy in 1990, the media environment still is considered restrictive, by Western media standards. Though journalists no longer face the threat of physical molestation for their words, many of the legal influences of the Allende and Pinochet regimes still exist in the country’s media structure.

A prime example of this influence can be seen in the continued existence of laws intended to protect the senior officials of the state institutions. Journalists (and citizens) are subject to these laws, which are more generally known as leyes de descato ("laws of contempt") and are designed to ensure the respect of government authority. Anyone who breaks these descato laws faces a maximum prison sentence of five years (Brett, 1998).

Since 1990, these laws have been applied to 15 journalists and eight politicians. Perhaps the most celebrated case of this enforcement was the ruling against journalist Alejandra Matus. In 1998, a Chilean court banned from the public sphere all copies of Matus’ Black Book of Chilean Justice, a scathing accounting of the involvement of the Chilean courts in the Pinochet regime ("Chilean judge impounds book on judicial corruption," 1999).

Another practice held over from the earlier restrictive press systems is the limited access to information granted to journalists by the various branches of the Chilean government. Accounting of public events is a journalist’s job, but the government rarely seems to want to cooperate in the dissemination of important factual information (Brett, 1998).

However, not all of the restrictions of the flow of information come from the government. After decades of oppression, many journalists appear wary to challenge the official reports of the Chilean governmental sources (Brett, 1998). An example of this phenomenon can be seen in last year’s media coverage of a Chilean senator who was on a crusade against the evils of divorce. Out of the dozens of papers who carried the story, none reported the fact that the senator had himself been divorced twice ("Relatório de Meio Ano 2001: Chile," 2001).

This form of self-censorship appears most powerful in television, perhaps because of the government’s increased scrutiny of television programming. As a result, study in 1998 showed that 85 percent of televised news stories were directly based on government sources (Brett, 1998). Other media formats, such as film, are also strongly censored ("Country Report: Chile," 2001).

Fortunately, the media environment in Chile appears to be improving. Several reforms governing free expression of ideas by media outlets are currently under review by the government ("Relatório de Meio Ano 2001: Chile," 2001). In addition, the courts are becoming less oppressive of journalists. Fernando Paulsen, editor of La Tercera, and one of his journalists, Jose Ale, were put on trial in 1998 for allegedly libeling Servando Jordan Lopez, a former chief justice of the Chilean Supreme Court who still sits on the court. The judgment of the case acquitted both defendants, and was upheld in the appeals court ("Relatório de Meio Ano 2001: Chile," 2001).

Cases like this, which show a renewed interest in removing the controls of governmental influence from a journalist’s ability to report news events show the progress of freedom Chile is experiencing. However, the process has been slow, and the effects of the regimes and Allende and Pinochet will probably still be felt in Chile’s media environment for years to come.

Background

Allende's Influence on the Media Environment

Pinochet's Influence on the Media Environment

The Chilean Press Under Civilian Democracy

Reference List