Chile: Next president must grasp the nettle of media democratisation
Next president must grasp the nettle of media democratisation
Published on Friday 15 November 2013.
On the eve of Chile’s presidential election on 17 November, Reporters Without Borders urges the candidates to give a firm commitment to democratising information and communications. We appeal especially to the two main contenders Michelle Bachelet, who served previously as president from 2006 to 2010, and Evelyn Matthei.
Unlike neighbouring countries such as Argentina and Uruguay, Chile never repealed the regulation framework established under the 1973-1990 military dictatorship. In the 21 years since the return to democracy, governments run by the Concert of Parties for Democracy, including the one headed by Bachelet, have not reformed the system based on concentrated private ownership, which is anathema to pluralism.
The mechanisms that perpetuate such a system must be dismantled urgently. In first place is the government subsidies paid to the print media, of which the duopoly El Mercurio and Copesa – owners of 95 percent of print titles — are the sole beneficiaries. Second is the 1982 general law on communications, passed during the Pinochet era, and its section 36B, which was added later and provides for a custodial sentence for broadcasting on an illegal frequency. This legislation has turned broadcasting into a closed shop, at the expense of small, independent and community-based radio and television stations, which have been waiting for years to be granted official status.
The law passed in May 2010, providing for the establishment of community and citizens’ radio broadcasting services, must be applied. The transfer or reallocation of frequencies must also be imposed, since the consortium Iberoamericana Radio Chile, which holds 60 percent of them, refuses to abide by the 2012 agreement between broadcasters and the telecoms regulator Subtel.
More:
http://en.rsf.org/chile-next-president-must-grasp-the-15-11-2013,45461.html
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Use, manipulation of Chile's "news" media by the U.S. C.I.A. under the direction of President Richard Nixon for his own political purposes:
CIA funding[edit]
El Mercurio received funds from the CIA in the early 1970s to undermine the Socialist government of Salvador Allende, acting as a mouthpiece for anti-Allende propaganda.[2]
Declassified documents that detail US interventions in Chile revealed the paper's role,[3] and the extent of the paper’s cooperation with the CIA:“Throughout the 1960s, the CIA poured funds into Chile’s largest—and staunchly right-wing—newspaper, El Mercurio, putting reporters and editors on the payroll, writing articles and columns for placement and providing additional funds for operating expenses. After the paper’s owner, Agustín Edwards came to Washington in September 1970 to lobby Nixon for action against Allende, the CIA used El Mercurio as a key outlet for a massive propaganda campaign as part of Track I and Track II. Throughout Allende’s aborted tenure, the paper continued an unyielding campaign, running countless virulent, inflammatory articles and editorials exhorting opposition against—and at times even calling for the overthrow of—the Popular Unity government. " [4] (p. 91-92)
Support reached to the highest levels of the US government. When the paper requested significant funds for covert support in September 1971, “...in a rare example of presidential micromanagement of a covert operation, Nixon personally authorized the $700,000—and more if necessary—in covert funds to El Mercurio.” [4] (p. 93)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/El_Mercurio
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In 1970, the U.S. manufacturing company ITT Corporation owned of 70% of Chitelco, the Chilean Telephone Company, and funded El Mercurio, a Chilean right-wing newspaper. The CIA used ITT as a conduit to financially aid opponents of Allende's government.[18][19] On 28 September 1973, ITT's headquarters in New York City, was bombed by the Weather Underground for the alleged involvement of the company in the overthrow of Allende.[20]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_intervention_in_Chile
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Covert funds were funnelled into Chilean congressional campaigns; CIA agents stayed close to disgruntled Chilean military officers; to keep the military on edge, the CIA planted false propaganda suggesting that the Chilean left planned to take control of the armed forces; and the CIA secretly poured $1.5 million into one of Chile's leading newspapers, El Mercurio.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/1990s/consor33.html
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More information on El Mercurio and the coup:
Daniel Brandt writes,
On the day that Helms received his instructions from Nixon, the owner of El Mercurio, wealthy Chilean businessman Agustin Edwards, conferred with top officials of the Nixon administration.61 The El Mercurio network consists of newspapers, radio station, ad agencies, and a wire service; it dominates the Chilean media in audience, size, and prestige, and includes the three principal newspapers of Santiago and seven provincial papers.62 In the seven-month period from September 9, 1971 to April 11, 1972 the CIA spent $1.5 million on El Mercurio,63 but the funding also preceded and followed this period. [...] The El Mercurio network was used by the CIA to "launder propaganda, disinformation, fake themes and scare stories which were then circulated through 70 percent of the Chilean press and 90 percent of the Chilean radio. The USIA and the Inter-American Press Association (IAPA) in turn circulated these stories all over the world."67
U.S. Responsibility for the Coup in Chile
Peter Kornbluh points our that declassified documents have shown that,
• Even before Allende was inaugurated as president of Chile, Edwards came to Washington and discussed with the CIA the "timing for possible military action" to prevent Allende from taking office.
• President Nixon directly authorized massive funding to the newspaper. The White House approved close to $2 million dollars - a significant sum when turned into Chilean currency on the black market.
• Secret CIA cables from mid-1973 identified El Mercurio as among the "most militant parts of the opposition" pushing for military intervention to overthrow Allende.
• In the aftermath of the coup, the CIA continued to covertly finance media operations in order to influence Chilean public opinion in favor of the new military regime, despite General Pinochet's brutal repression.
http://memoryinlatinamerica.blogspot.com/2008/11/chile-el-mercurio-coup.html