Guatemala: Media monopoly "squeezes out alternative voices"
“Controlling information is taking away people's right to information, something that is fundamental for real democracy to exist”(Gonzalo Marroquín, Guatemalan journalist and President of Inter American Press Association)
By Teresia Mutuku, Communication Officer and Web Manager, WACC
Over the past 30 years, information and communication technologies in Guatemala have evolved significantly, but media monopoly has remained unchanged.
“One thing that has stayed the same is the concentration of media ownership in a very few hands,” says Dennis Smith, President of the World Association for Christian Communication (WACC), in a recent interview in Guatemala City.
Dennis Smith, President, WACC and Evelyn Blanck, Executive Director, Centro Civitas
“Mexican media mogul, Remigio González, based in Miami USA, has had monopoly control of the country’s broadcast television stations since the mid-1990s”, says Smith.
BBC’s Guatemala country profile affirms that private operators dominate the media scene. “Four national TV channels share the same owner and have a virtual monopoly in TV broadcasting. The channels have been criticized for being pro-government.”
Although press freedom is enshrined in Guatemala's constitution, and newspapers freely criticise the government, many journalists face intimidation because of their reporting, often in the form of anonymous threats. Reporters who “expose” corruption are particularly targeted, reports the BBC.
The WACC President explains that the media monopoly has tremendous influence on news coverage. Alternative views are compromised with views that are perceived to be in the interest of maintaining the status quo.
With regard to the scale of media outreach in the country, Smith says that radio has the broadest penetration in the population and significant presence of Indigenous languages. However, he points out that radio does not have “a single national coverage”, it is rather fragmented into regional commercial and community entities. He also observes that licensing bureaucracies make it difficult for many communities to have their own radio stations.
Television, he says, has a more unified presence due to the existing monopoly, broadcasting the same channels throughout the country.
And on print media, Smith says that the daily newspapers tend to be more elitist except for Nuesto Diario - a daily newspaper with a circulation of 300,000 copies, the largest daily press run of any newspaper in all of Central America.
“It tends to be a tabloid, not only in its format but also a tabloid in Rupert Murdoch’s British Sun style with heavy emphasis on scandal and lots of scantily clad maidens and also on the daily violence in different communities”, says Smith.
(3.27 mins)
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Evelyn Blanck, a veteran journalist with local media for over 20 years concurs that the media monopoly has had an adverse influence on human rights and democracy in the country.
“We are very concerned to see the press behave in ways that we consider to be going against the movement towards democratization in the country”, she says.
Blanck, the Executive Director of Centro Civitas, a think tank working with communication media on social and human rights issues points out three recent findings of their media monitoring research:
Journalists don’t understand well the concept of human rights. There is an underlying belief that human rights are basically to defend delinquents.
Most of the coverage on human rights defenders is not featured on news pages but mainly on opinion pages.
Most coverage is focused on individual high profile human rights defenders.
However, Blanck observes that although there is an “exclusion process” in media coverage of human rights issues, there has been some improvement and progress. “The regional media are beginning to have certain coverage especially of social issues. But most of the coverage is focused on local violence - sensational yellow journalism”.
Centro Civitas is running an ongoing programme to train journalists as human rights promoters and also a special programme on women and media to promote equal representation of women in the news media coverage.
2.57 mins
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The President of Inter American Press Association (IAPA), Gonzalo Marroquín, who recently resigned as editor of Guatemala’s flagship daily Prensa Libre, recently declared: "We are in a time of great contrasts, where we can acknowledge that there is greater public awareness of the importance of freedom of expression, better media and technologies for communication. Unfortunately there also exist risks and setbacks caused by those who want to impose silence, whether they be participants in organized crime, corrupt officials or authoritarian governments."
Marroquín, while welcoming 2011 as “Freedom of Expression Year”, further said, "We must not forget that freedom of expression in the Americas is facing great enemies - organized crime (especially drug traffickers) and those authoritarian and intolerant governments that want to control information. These enemies are really attacking society at large more than journalists and media, because what they are trying to do is take away people's right to information which, in his opinion, is fundamental for real democracy to exist. (http://www.ifex.org/americas/2010/12/16/free_expression_year/)
The WACC president underlines that the complexities imposed by Guatemala’s telecommunications law have derailed communication rights efforts in the country.
“Although communication rights context in the country is changing dramatically with a widespread use of cell phones, monopoly remains a challenge”, declares Smith.
5.37mins
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WACC, through its communication rights programme, continues to support various initiatives around the world to increase awareness and recognition of communication rights as a human right and as a part of fair and sustainable political, social, and economic development.
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