More Freedom of Expression Seen : Political Call-in Show Gets Sandinistas’ OK

A privately owned radio call-in show will go on the air tonight in what independent journalists say is part of a gradual broadening of freedom of expression brought on by the Central American peace accords.

Opposition politicians, representatives of private enterprise and government officials will field questions from callers on the hourlong weekly show, “Direct Line.”

Rene Jiron, owner of the radio station El Fabuloso 7, which will air the program, said the Sandinista government approved the show this week when it also authorized the reopening of the Roman Catholic Church’s station, Radio Catolica.

Jiron said such a political program is “risky,” because callers are unpredictable and the limits of freedom of speech are ill-defined and in flux.

“I am nervous. This is my profession and I want to live in my country and contribute to peace,” Jiron said guardedly. “The signs of change are still small.”

On Tuesday, Interior Minister Tomas Borge announced the suspension of prior censorship on the media. Journalists point out, however, that a media-operation law and a state of emergency still allow censorship and restrict coverage of such topics as the military situation and the economy.

The government has said censorship was necessary because of the U.S.-backed contra war.

Radio is perhaps the most important means of communication in countries such as Nicaragua, where much of the population is illiterate or isolated in farming communities where newspapers and television sets are scarce.

Radio call-in shows are a popular forum in Nicaragua, but they have been tightly controlled in the last four years. The government’s radio station, La Voz de Nicaragua, has two programs for callers to lodge complaints against the government, and six months ago the government allowed a leftist political party to begin broadcasting a weekly call-in show, The Workers Tribune, on a private station.

The program Direct Line, aired on the Sandinista Front’s Radio Sandino, from 1980 to 1985 under the direction of Miguel de Jesus Blandon. He said his show was never censored, but that he was heavily criticized by the Sandinista press for some of his guests, particularly U.S. officials. It went off the air when he left the station.

Jiron hired Blandon a year ago. He considers Blandon to be a moderate Sandinista and a good choice to host the now-independent radio show.

If Direct Line is allowed to broadcast freely, Jiron said, he will seek permission to begin a daily newscast on the music and entertainment station. Jiron said he had four daily news shows on Fabuloso 7 before they were banned along with about 15 other news programs in 1982. “The only way we will agree to go on the air (with a news show) is with strict freedom of the press,” Jiron said.

There were about 80 radio stations in Nicaragua before the Sandinistas came to power in 1979. Several were destroyed by the National Guard during the fighting to oust dictator Anastasio Somoza. Now there are about 35 radio stations, 18 of which are in government hands.

“Many of the owners left with Somoza, others left because they did not like the systems,” said Allan Tefel, director of “El Pensamiento,” one of the five independent news shows on the air now.

The Catholic church, under Cardinal Miguel Obando y Bravo, has been a major opposition voice and Radio Catolica was considered an opposition station until it was closed in 1986 for failing to air a presidential New Year’s message.

On Wednesday, Radio Catolica director Msgr. Bismarck Carballo was hunting for radio tubes to repair his transmitter. Carballo, who hopes to go on the air by Oct. 1, said the programming will include a news show.

“The government thinks we are going to be praying all day,” Carballo said. “That is not the case.”

Radio journalists said that limits on freedom of expression often have been more interpretive than explicit. Sometimes the government sends advisories warning that a specific story is off limits, as in the case of a report from Washington several months ago that a Soviet ship had delivered arms.

But other times, the decision is left to the news directors. In lifting censorship, Interior Minister Borge told them to exercise “professional and patriotic” journalism, which Jiron interprets to mean self-censorship. As an example, he said, “I would not report that the farmers complain they have to sell to the state when they can get a better price on the free market. It is not written anywhere, that I can’t.”

Radio journalists says the regional peace plan signed by five Central American presidents Aug. 7 has widened the range of topics and viewpoints that can be expressed on the air.

“We can speak about a cease-fire and about the possibility of Cardinal (Miguel) Obando y Bravo going to talk to the contras. We couldn’t do that before,” Tefel said.

Tefel said that his program has criticized Managua Mayor Moises Hassan for allowing garbage to pile up in the city, and Internal Commerce Minister Ramon Cabrales for rationing basic foods. He said he reported the Aug. 15 arrest of human rights activists Lino Hernandez and Alberto Saborio.

But he said he did not report police use of dogs and electric prods to break up the demonstration where the activists were arrested.

“It was not convenient for the radio to report that,” Tefel said. He added, however, that if it were to occur today, he would report those details. “You know liberties are gained step by step,” he said.