The Latin Left's Attack on the Media

Latin America is more democratic than ever: free elections are the norm, and 57 percent of Latin Americans support democracy over authoritarian government, up from 54 percent five years ago, according to Latinobarómetro, a polling firm. Yet across the region, the media are under assault from autocrats who are exploiting their popularity and the democratic process by calling for plebiscites to rewrite their constitutions and reshape institutions to fit their ambitions, smother criticism, intimidate rivals, and discredit the press. The Inter-American Press Association recently decried the campaign as the "new frontier of censorship." 

Leading the way is Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez, who has yanked scores of independent TV and radio stations off the air and muscled Congress into drafting a bill against "media crimes," an ill-­defined offense that would punish any news outlet that prints or broadcasts "opinions instead of facts," and would submit publications to ominous "social controls." Similar gag laws have been implemented in the past two years in ­Bolivia, Ecuador, and ­Nicaragua--­nations all belonging to Chávez's left-wing ­Bolivarian alliance. In October, Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner sponsored legislation aimed at busting up media conglomerates, and marshaled obedient truckers' unions into blocking delivery of the newspapers Clarín and La Nación, her toughest ­critics. 

Even moderate Brazil has taken shots at the Fourth Estate. After a series of unflattering reports on his government, Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva has taken to repeating, "The media's job is to report, not to investigate." Apparently Latin America's new democracies now come with a ­remote-control mute button.