Peace Talks Bring New Freedom of Press to Nicaragua

Peace negotiations have brought a vigorous breeze of press freedom to Nicaragua, giving radio stations and an opposition newspaper wide leeway to question, criticize and challenge the Marxist-oriented Sandinista government.

The government has relaxed control of the media in keeping with a Central American peace agreement signed last August in Guatemala. A preliminary cease-fire pact signed Wednesday by the Sandinistas and Contras also calls for unrestricted freedom of information.

Contra leaders have emphasized that press freedom is an essential part of the democratic reforms they demand and a key condition for the coming talks on a definitive cease-fire.

Before Nicaragua and four other Central American countries signed the August agreement, the Sandinista government tightly controlled all news media.

La Prensa, the country’s only opposition newspaper, had been shut down for more than a year. Independent radio programs of news and commentary were banned, with the exception of three that agreed to self-censorship.

The government owns the country’s only two television channels.

Under a section entitled “Democratization,” the regional peace agreement declared: “There must be complete freedom for television, radio and press. This complete freedom will include that of opening and maintaining communications media for all ideological groups and operating those media without prior censorship.”

In late September, the government allowed La Prensa to reopen without censorship, then authorized dissident political and labor organizations to publish a few small magazines.

Emergency Curbs Lifted

In January, the government lifted a state of emergency and opened the way for independent and opposition radio broadcasts.

Heavy censorship began in 1982 under a state of emergency imposed when the Contras’ campaign against the Sandinistas first gained strength with aid from the CIA. The government said then that control of the media was necessary for a united war effort.

Closing radio programs “was an error by the government,” said Danilo Aguirre, a Sandinista congressman and editor of the pro-Sandinista newspaper El Nuevo Diario.

But Aguirre sharply criticized La Prensa, accusing it of printing “clearly subversive” propaganda and attacking the government with unrestrained terms such as “bloody dictatorship.”

“The content of La Prensa has been so polarizing, so destructive,” he said.

Strict Censorship

La Prensa was under strict censorship when it closed in June, 1986, after the U.S. Congress approved $100 million in new aid to the guerrillas. Since the paper reopened, many Sandinista militants have asked the government to prosecute it for libel, calumny and threatening public order, according to Aguirre.

He added, however, that La Prensa has adopted a more moderate tone since the Roman Catholic Church called for public restraint on the eve of this week’s cease-fire negotiations.

Jaime Chamorro, a member of the family that owns La Prensa, said the new press freedom has given Nicaraguans a window for seeing through Sandinista propaganda, damaging the government’s credibility.

“La Prensa has done enormous damage,” Chamorro said. “It is a small truth that destroys a big lie.”

He said he sees no guarantee that freedom of the press is here to stay. A press law enacted by the Sandinistas gives the government the authority to close news media for several kinds of infractions, including “publicizing campaigns by enemies of the revolution,” Chamorro said.

“Anyone could be an enemy of the revolution here,” he said. “They decide.”

Running Low on Paper

La Prensa also has supply problems that could close it at least temporarily. The newspaper reported Thursday evening that it was running out of paper and will not be able to publish Monday.

A fresh supply of paper is due in on a Soviet ship next week.

Independent radio broadcasters say they are limited by a shortage of journalists to start independent news programs since the government authorized them in January. Jose Castillo, the director of Radio Corporacion, estimated that 80% of Nicaragua’s non-Sandinista radio journalists have left the country for political or economic reasons.

Radio Corporacion, the leading independent station, has taken an opposition line in its news and commentary, and Castillo slaps the Sandinistas with such labels as “liars,” “dictators” and “totalitarians.”

“I say barbarities about them,” he admitted.

He predicted that if the Nicaraguan peace efforts fail, the current opening for a free press will close.

Small Opening for Press

“It is not an opening, only a small light that a gust of wind could blow out,” he said. “Before the wind comes, we want to tell the people what is happening.”

Radio Catolica, operated by the Catholic Church, also has resumed unrestricted news broadcasts. Three previously self-censored programs on Radio Noticias are now airing notably independent news. And another station, Radio Mundial, is broadcasting news programs sponsored by an opposition business federation known by the acronym COSEP.

COSEP has asked for authorization to operate a television channel. The government has said that TV broadcasting is reserved for the government by law. But it has said that changes in the law may be discussed in current negotiations between opposition political groups and the government.

Some political parties have been authorized to buy radio space for political broadcasts. Sunday mornings, for example, the Communist and Conservative parties each have programs on Radio Corporacion.

Request Delayed

But Jose Antonio Bonilla, a leader of the opposition Social Democratic Party, said its request for permission to broadcast has not been granted.

“It has been delayed,” Bonilla said. “They haven’t given us a reason.”

The government and the Sandinista party still control a large majority of Nicaraguan radio broadcasts. In mid-March, amid heavy fighting between Sandinista troops and Contra forces on both sides of the Honduran border, the government imposed a national radio hookup that replaced all information programs with government-produced broadcasts.

Last weekend, the radio hookup was reduced to three hours a day, allowing for the return of independent and opposition information.