Expulsion of two Spanish journalists deals blow to freedom of expression

[Judi Lynn]

Expulsion of two Spanish journalists deals blow to freedom of expression
Published on Tuesday 1 March 2011.

Spanish journalists Paco Gómez Nadal and Pilar Chato agreed under pressure to be repatriated yesterday, 48 hours after being arrested during a demonstration by indigenous groups outside the parliament building in Panama City in protest against a mining law reform.

While transiting through Costa Rica yesterday, the couple told journalists the Panamanian authorities pressured them to accept voluntary repatriation, which would allow them to return to Panama within two years, instead of four years if they had been deported.

“Regardless of the legal nuances, Gómez and Chato were the victims of a politically motivated expulsion because their support for the indigenous cause as journalists and their involvement in the NGO Human Rights Everywhere ran counter to the Panamanian government’s interests” Reporters Without Borders said.

“This case represents a denial of freedom of expression on a matter of public interest,” the press freedom organization added.

More:
http://en.rsf.org/panama-two-spanish-journalists-facing-28-02-2011,39639.html

[Judi Lynn]

1. Human Rights and Environmental Abuses Campaign

Human Rights and Environmental Abuses Campaign

http://www.culturalsurvival.org.nyud.net:8090/files/images/GR_insert_34-3ngobe.jpg

Panama is for sale. Its government is recklessly overturning regulations and passing new permissive laws to attract foreign mining companies and dam builders. To advance these industrial projects, the government is offering up Indigenous lands as if Indigenous Peoples did not exist. How is this possible in a country that voted in favor of the United Nations Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which guarantees the right to free, prior, and informed consent for any project that would affect Indigenous populations? How is it posible in a country that was directed by the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights to halt one construction project—the Chan 75 dam—because of ongoing human rights abuses by the American construction company AES?

To this government, nothing is sacred: not international human rights law, not the vast tropical rainforests it ostensibly protected as national parks and biosphere reserves, not the ancient homelands of Indigenous cultures, not the labor rights won by workers a century ago.

In June, behind doors that they chained shut to keep out civic organizations, and with anti-riot police surrounding the building, the National Assembly passed a law that bashes human rights, labor, and the environment in one fell swoop. Law No. 30 eliminates the requirement for environmental impact assessments for government-sponsored development projects, protects the police from prosecution for crimes and human rights abuses that they commit on the job, and limits labor unions' right to strike.

Legislators in league with the president could keep the public out of their chambers, but they couldn’t keep them off the streets. When (mostly Indigenous) banana workers called for a strike in Changuinola, they were quickly joined by the Ngöbe People who are being forced off their lands for dam construction. Within days, the protests spread throughout the country. They demanded (and they are still demanding) revocation of Law No. 30 and two others: Law No. 14, which authorizes prison sentences ranging from six months to two years for blocking streets during protest demonstrations, and Executive Decree No. 537, which restricts the right of Indigenous Peoples to elect leaders according to their traditional ways, in violation of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

More:
http://www.culturalsurvival.org/take-action/panama/backgroundpanama

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February 17, 2011 · 11:59 am
Panama: Indigenous People Getting Ready for Massive Demonstration

Indigenous people in Panama are getting ready for a massive demonstration that’s expected to draw 15,000 Ngobe from all parts of the country. If all goes according to plan, it would be one of the largest protests in Panama’s history.

Given Panama’s current level of rhetoric and their apparent “shoot now ask questions later” policy in dealing with the Ngobe, it may also turn out to be one of the most violent–at least, during the term of President Ricardo Martinelli.

On February 7, more than 2,000 Ngobe mobilized across Panama to protest against new Mining Code reforms that were being debated at the time. “The people demonstrated peacefully, speaking beforehand with the authorities about the intentions of the march,” says the Ngobe Catholic Mission of Soloya, in a press release dated Feb. 10.

However, the Ngobe barely had any time to talk before Panama’s police forces opened fire on the Ngobe with tear gas, shot guns and rubber bullets. “In the case of San Felix, the protesters had not even occupied one lane of the Pan American Highway, as was their intention, when they were violently repressed. There was clearly a disproportionate repression of the riot police against the unsuspecting population, resulting in serious incidents of wounded and arrested,” the press release states.

More:
http://climatevoices.wordpress.com/2011/02/17/panama-indigenous-people-getting-ready-for-massive-demonstration/