|
MEDIA COUP IN HONDURAS
by Jerome Duval
The insurgents (the Junta) control the media and silence the few media that report on the resistance.
The media claim the defense of democracy as their battle cry. But it is clear that for some, there are two types of democracia. En this case, particular, favored by the media multinational capitalist is representative democracy. In fact, as it corresponds with their own definition | 1 | to give power to the people, the media prefer to banish or discredit it. Democracy neoliberalism is recognized as the only valid one, and that gives a minority's freedom of action and prevents the Most decide the future of the country.
However, the President of Honduras project was not that. Manuel Zelaya proposed a vote, as was done previously in Ecuador and Bolivia, to convene a Constituent Assembly. If accepted this proposal, draft a new constitution, which would subsequently (be) subjected to the polls to be ratified by the people through referendum. Is there a more democratic process to define the political structure of a country? In this case, the people are sovereign and that's certainly what scares the multinational media. In Honduras, as elsewhere, the media business with the support of the oligarchy are hostile to this type of project. It is no coincidence that on 28 June, the same day that Zelaya is preparing to consult the people to determine whether to accept the installation of a fourth ballot in the November elections, the oligarchy seizes power in a coup.
With the massive presence of American companies like United Fruit Company | 2 |, a real state within the state, maintaining the tradition of submission to the multinationals. In fact the country was Honduras that inspired the term "banana republic". The few families that constitute the oligarchy of the country possessing the largest companies, radio stations, television and newspapers, and lodge in the seats of power. But the seats of power were not enough with the "threat Chavez" gaining ground in the continent. Thus, the Honduran oligarchy was placed in the forefront of power through the force of a blow on 28 June 2009.
That day a power outage paralyzed the capital and prevent the emission of most national media and international efforts to avoid the massive outflow of people to the streets at news of the coup. The army raided the local TV Channel 36, also called South Cholusat true to Zelaya. The three journalists of Telesur, Adriana Sivori, Jose Maria Diaz and Larry Sanchez are kidnapped from their hotel and taken by force on immigration with other journalists from the Associated Press | 3 |. Their equipment was confiscated and then prevents them from using their mobile phones. After hours of Tegucigalpa, some hours after the assault, scores of soldiers invaded the premises of Radio Progreso in Choloma and is required to cease all activity | 4 |. We know what happened afterwards: Manuel Zelaya and his foreign minister, Patricia Rhodes, expelled (to) Costa Rica, began a diplomatic negotiation, while in Honduras, the National Front against the coup | 5 | centralizes the resistance in a context characterized by polarization of the population between "Zelaya" and coup. Honduras has been a liberal laboratory in 70-80 years a time experimented with the counterrevolution | 6 |, now returns to the international scene, revealing the impact of a revived Cold War.
Does the word to the people? (Do the people get access to free speech?)
Manuel Zelaya, despite coming from a rich family of forest entrepreneurs, had decided to defend the interests of the poor above those of private companies. When not following the agenda of big business and the U.S. embassy, (he) was slandered and libeled by the press since the beginning of his mandate. He was given no more than six months as president, and then another year, and so on until the fateful day when the army deported (him). To restore balance in the media and give voice (in) the media (to) increasingly ignore(d people), Zelaya launched a weekly free public (broadcast) in late 2007, Citizen Power, which promotes citizen participation. Then he nationalized Channel 8 TV, (denied them the renewal of their broadcast license) because of the mismanagement of Elijah Aspura. Of course, since the coup, Citizen Power is gone, the employees were fired and Channel 8 is back in the hands of Elijah Asfura, its former owner | 7 |, who also owns TV channels 8, 12 and 30.(SNIP) (Confused translation, but the main point of the paragraph is) It is likely that the fourth ballot proposal for elections in November 2009 would have been approved if the coup had not suddenly stopped the democratic process.
The oligarchy owns the means of communication and strengthens the manipulation
In a country where the media describe as "rogue" members of the resistance to the coup, only one of the ten television stations that broadcast nationally, Channel 36, explains what happens. Radio One, Radio Globo, gave the floor to inform people of the ongoing resistance. No national newspaper speaks of the movement against the coup without manipulating public opinion and clearly take sides with the dictatorship of Micheletti. A single publication of a monthly, The Liberator, offers in-depth articles that clearly show the ongoing class struggle. We're talking about national media, because locally, it is noted among others, the presence of Radio Progreso, from which a journalist, Gustavo Carpoza, was beaten in the street and later during transport to the police station while participating in mobilizing Choloma, 14 August 2009. | 9 |
As in many other countries, a group of bankers, businessmen and media owners, are the families that are closely related to the United States and those in power. Almost all radio, television and major newspapers belong to the oligarchs who supported the coup of June 28.
These include Carlos Roberto Flores, former president of Honduras from 1998 to 2002, close to Micheletti and suspected of being one of the chief ideologues of the coup who owns a major newspaper La Tribuna in the country. Canahuati Jorge Larach, the National Party, owner of El Heraldo and La Prensa, two other Central American country's main newspapers | 10 |. Rafael Ferrari, a known member of the Liberal Party is the owner of television channels 3, 5 and 7 (Group Televicentro) and many radio stations (United Stations, HRN, Radio North, etc.).. The businessman Ricardo Maduro, a former Central Bank president (1990-1994) and President of the Republic between 2002 and 2006 | 11 | who before leaving his post to Manuel Zelaya, (meekly applied) adjustment measures dictated by the IMF (devaluation of the national currency, liberalization of prices ...). Maduro invested in El Salvador and Honduras, where he owns shopping centers (Grupo Roble), banks and media. To defend the spurious grounds of removal of Zelaya was presented with the Honduran Constitution in hand to Congress in Washington on July 8. Here are some of the characters who have supported and disseminated the ideology the coup. As in Venezuela in April 2002, one can speak of "media coup".
In its edition of Sunday, August 16th, the newspaper El Heraldo denounces "terrorist attack" that "threatens freedom of expression." In fact, there is a fire caused by two Molotov cocktails thrown at the newspaper. To understand this act "terrorist" should be read in the same edition of the paper, these few lines of five pages later: "It was not enough for the former president, Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran call the confrontation but now wants the international community disapproves of the electoral process ... ". The paper goes on: "Zelaya has been replaced in office on June 28 after violating the Constitution of the Republic and face justice that prevented him from carrying out a consultation illegal to convene a National Constituent Assembly." (The Herald, August 16, 2009, p.8). This ideological position is reflected daily in the columns of all the national dailies. This lack of journalistic professionalism, that represents a real disinformation, enraged some militant, like the professor in a popular assembly of resistance against the coup proposed distributing leaflets to correct misinformation in the media business.
In its edition of Sunday, August 16th, the newspaper El Heraldo denounces "terrorist attack" that "threatens freedom of expression." In fact, there is a fire caused by two Molotov cocktails thrown at the newspaper. To understand this act "terrorist" should be read in the same edition of the paper, these few lines of five pages later: "It was not enough for the former president, Manuel Zelaya, the Honduran call the confrontation but now wants the international community disapproves of the electoral process ... ". The paper goes on: "Zelaya has been replaced in office on June 28 after violating the Constitution of the Republic and face justice that prevented him from carrying out a consultation illegal to convene a National Constituent Assembly." (The Herald, August 16, 2009, p.8). This ideological position is reflected daily in the columns of all the national dailies. This lack of journalistic professionalism, that represents a real disinformation, enraged some militant, like the professor in a popular assembly of resistance against the coup proposed distributing leaflets to correct misinformation in the media business. (NOTE: It's not clear what this final sentence means--is it saying that throwing molotov cocktails is the same as passing out anti-coup leaflets? Both are acts aimed at enhancing free speech? Not sure. The next paragraph chronicles the violence against local anti-coup and international media by the Junta.) In this context, resistance is organized around the only ways that give voice to people, especially Radio Globo and Channel 36. Recall that the "attack" at The Herald followed a series of acts of intimidation and violence towards other media. Telesur journalists were kidnapped from their hotel on 11 July for the second time since the coup, their passports were confiscated and were threatened | 12 | by police forces of the de facto government. Telesur is one of the few international TV channels covering the events happening: most international television crews have left the country after the tensions caused by the shock subsides (apparently ...). The team of public television in Venezuela, Venezolana de Television (VTV) has been kidnapped on July 11. Channel 36 and Radio Globo that continue to face pressures and pirate attacks that affect (their) transmission, have cut their programs on July 16. On August 23, masked gunmen and destroyed the transmission apparatus of Channel 36. The program Maya spoken like TV has had to stop, too, due to transmission damage. And these attacks will continue while the media quietly manipulate public opinion.
Following a decree issued on Sunday, September 27th (and removed some days later because of international pressure), are constitutional guarantees of freedom of expression, movement and assembly were suspended to give way to systematic repression. The day after, September 28, the army seized and confiscated all the material audiovisual Channel 36 and Radio Globo. Only Radio Globo, which warned of this possibility, continues to broadcast via Internet from an unknown location.
Media war
This (media) war comes at a time when progressive governments on the continent are facing the media business trying to legislate to limit the destabilizing role promoted by a growing monopoly power.
Evo Morales accused the newspaper La Razon (owned group Prisa, which also owns Le Monde and El Pais) to follow the guidelines of the United States Embassy in La Paz | 13 |. The Argentine government seeks to promote legislation to limit monopolies in the media which now are concentrated in few hands, facing strong opposition from big business. This law will replace the force since the military dictatorship (1976-83), with plans to restrict licenses for businesses. The local subsidiary of Telefonica (Spain) strongly opposes the ban on participation in the television business. Meanwhile, El Clarin, the largest media group in Argentina, he is concerned. Not mince words, the director of Clarin, Ricardo Roa, the law speaks of "Franco", "fascist" and "Chavez", adjectives that are, according to him, all together ...
This confrontation reveals a fault line among some progressive governments in the region and the multinational media. Within the Inter American Press Association (IAPA), the former Peruvian President Alejandro Toledo and former President of Bolivia, Carlos Mesa, spoke of "attack on freedom of expression" by governments to attack the media -industrial complex to leave a gap to the media citizen | 14 |. Attributing the enemy what we do is an effective form of distraction to be released soon ... by the media.
In Honduras, these media are the voice of the oligarchy of the country that supported the coup and defend their financial interests. Supporting the continuation of this corrupt representative democracy and are against all attempts at constitutional reform that affect their privileges. Kissinger spoke of Allende's Chile as a "virus" that could "infect" the region | 15 |. The reactionary forces believe the same of Chavez in Venezuela, but after failing to oust him despite the coup of April 2002, have attacked the last (country) "contaminated" by the idea of social justice, Honduras.http://hondurassolidarity.wordpress.com/2009/10/16/es-jerome-duval-golpe-mediatico-en-honduras/------------------------------ This article is addressing a very important subject, and I wish we had a better English translation of it. I've tried to transliterate in places (in the parentheses, above)--that is, guess at the gist of the sentence and put it into more understandable English--but my Spanish is not good enough to entirely trust this process. (For instance, I could not figure out what he was saying about molotov cocktails.) Basically, as I understand it, the author is pointing out that, not only has the news media become a weapon of war against the poor majority--due to the ability of the rich and the corporate to monopolize the means of communication--but also these media barons entrench themselves and defend their monopolies over news and opinion by hypocritically championing "free speech." (Thus they resist any measures to democratize the airwaves, as are being implemented in Argentina, Bolivia, Venezuela and other progressive countries, and that Mel Zelaya was trying to do in Honduras (--something I didn't know). This is similar to the economic assault of "free trade for the rich" (neo-liberalism). The rich are free to do anything they damn please--enslave workers, destroy Planet Earth--under the guise of "freedom and democracy"--but the result is neither free nor democratic for most people, nor is it good government and good management of trade. Monopolies and entrenched power are very bad for democracy--whether in business products and services, or media. And, Honduras is an egregious example of the REAL state of "free speech" (non-existent, for most people) in this corpo/fascist delusion of democracy ("neo-liberalism"). I like his phrase: "The media-industrial complex."
|
Printer-friendly format
Email this thread to a friend
Bookmark this thread
(1000+ posts)
Send PM |
Profile |
Ignore
