Chicanery in Colombia

Colombian President Ernesto Samper has launched a legislative offensive against news media critical of his controversial administration. Unable to control reporting of the crisis that ensued after his electoral campaign was tied to drug trafficking money, he now wants to silence TV broadcasters by taking away their licenses.

In what appears to be a cynical campaign of political revenge, Samper’s allies are pushing three bills though the Colombian Congress that would suspend existing broadcast licenses for TV news programs. At stake is the fate of 12 independent broadcasters who could, under existing law, have held their licenses until 2004. Samper’s partisans in Congress insist that they only seek to “democratize television news programs.”

That is a dubious claim. Their real target is most likely a newscast put together by six well-known journalists, including the Nobel Prize-winning writer Gabriel Garcia Marquez, which has been critical of Samper at times.

Samper denies he is behind the attempted move. If that is true, then he should oppose this pending legislation. This would send a clear signal to those overzealous allies who believe they may be doing him a favor when they are actually undermining his already damaged credibility.

The Inter American Assn. has already urged the Colombian Congress to defeat these bills. We wholeheartedly support IAPA’s resolution and call on the Colombian executive and legislature to halt this ill-disguised attempt at censorship.