Argentine newspaper owner summoned to court

Vicente Massot, owner of Bahía Blanca-based newspaper La Nueva Provincia, has been summoned to testify in court on 18 March, in a groundbreaking move towards investigating the role of the media in the dictatorship.

La Nueva Provincia was known for its support of the military regime. Massot is also accused of killing two printshop workers and for helping the military regime cover up and justify the abductions and forced disappearances. The prosecutor’s indictment alleges his media group played a key role in legitimising the genocide that the military dictatorship carried out.

The printshop workers were trade unionists Enrique Heinrich and Miguel Ángel Loyola, who were both abducted on 30 June 1976. Their tortured remains were found on the embankment of Route 33, 17 kilometres from Bahía Blanca.

La Nueva Provincia owner to testify on dictatorship (Buenos Aires Herald)
Desde el diario a los tribunales (Pagina/12)

I was interested to note that the paper is still in existence and that it has reported on the upcoming testimony of its owner. It describes his court appearance as "spontaneous" and refers to the dictatorship as the "government of the national reorganisation process".

Massot declarará el lunes 18 de este mes (La Nueva)

Chile/US: El Mercurio owner admits meeting with CIA

Agustín Eastman Edwards, owner of Chilean paper El Mercurio, has testified in court that he did meet with former CIA director Richard Helms and former U.S. National Security advisor Henry Kissinger shortly after the election of Salvador Allende. He is currently accused of complicity in the dictatorship. However, he denies receiving funding from the US intelligence agency to destabilise the Allende regime.

I actually wrote about this meeting back in 2008.

Owner of Chile’s El Mercurio admits pre-coup contact with CIA, denies cooperation (Journalism in the Americas)
Chilean media tycoon admits meeting with CIA ahead of coup (Santiago Times)
Agustín Edwards reconoce vínculos con la CIA en Estados Unidos pero niega haber recibido dineros de la agencia norteamericana (El Mostrador)

Don McCullin on the "shame of memory"

The "Lens" blog in the New York Times picks up on comments by renowned photojournalist Don McCullin recently.

“Photography was a beautiful thing to me... But once I started putting my hands in the blood and suffering of war I became really disillusioned. I would stand in front of men who were going to be executed in front of me, crying, looking at me and hoping I could stop their murder. There were dying children in Africa who were starving, and I would come to a feeding center. They would think here was a white man, he is going to bring some food aid. All I had was a Nikon camera around my neck... At the end of the day, after years and years of assuming you can steal the pain of people in your pictures and the suffering of soldiers, civilians and starving children and dying children that drop dead in front of you, you have to suffer the shame of memory and then you have to somehow live with it, sleep with it, understand it without trying to become insane... Nobody said that you have to get on this airplane and go to these wars and make these terrible images. I did it. I have to accept the responsibility.”

Strong words which raise pertinent questions about the point of photojournalism and the uses of photography. 

I think McCullin is right that claims about the power of photography (and indeed, memory) are often overblown. Recordar para no repetir, we hear. Nunca más. Never again. But atrocities do happen again. The Holocaust was unique, but it didn't prevent Rwanda, Guatemala, Cambodia, Argentina, Peru, and the rest. He is quite right that there is no sign of an end to war and bloodshed.

So why bother? Firstly, I think, there is a value in learning about and remembering historic events whether or not this can affect the future. It seems like a question of respect towards the victims as much as anything. Photography plays a role in illustrating this and giving it a "human face".

Secondly, let's not only see the negative. While countries continue to suffer trauma, there has been progress too. Argentina - a country which experienced six coups in the twentieth century - is about to mark 30 years of democracy. Brazil is examining its past in a truth commission. Peru has imprisoned both its main guerrilla leader and the president who combated terrorism with disregard for human rights.

The issue of shame is an interesting one. Yes, being a photographer is a job and they earn money from it - I have no idea how much, but I have a suspicion it's not that much when you consider the risks they run (which they choose to run). So are they merely exploiting their subjects? It's an issue with many sides, clearly, but my instinct is that we need to see, however imperfectly, what is happening in other parts of the world. Photographs can't work miracles, but they do form an important part of memory work, and memory might not prevent future disasters, but it is still important in its own right.

The “Shame of Memory” Haunts a War Photographer (NYT)

Brazil: O Globo apologises for coup support

Brazilian paper O Globo last week issued an unexpected apology for its support for the military dictatorship in the country; however, it also implicated a number of other media outlets in the complicity.

It described its support for the regime as "a mistake".

As often in such situations, few were satisfied by the statement. Current-day coup supporters saw the editorial as an attempt to rewrite history. According to weekly magazine Carta Capital, the right-wing group Clube Militar - which still holds annual celebrations of the coup - said they were nonplussed with what they saw as a two-faced retraction. On the other hand, for opponents the apology did not go far enough and was condemned as a marketing strategy. 

Apoio editorial ao golpe de 64 foi um erro (O Globo)

Leading Brazilian newspaper O Globo calls support for 1964 military coup "a mistake" (Journalism in the Americas)
Globo media organisation apologises for supporting Brazil’s dictatorship (The Independent)
Brazil's Globo group apologizes for backing military government (LA Times)

Germany: Intelligence services do not have to release Eichmann info

This is a slight departure from my usual focus, but there is an Argentine connection.

German daily Bild, which is not exactly the first publication to spring to mind when you think of investigative journalism, has just lost a court case in which it attempted to force the German intelligence service (Bundesnachrichtendienst, BND) to release information pertaining to Adolf Eichmann. The paper wants to prove that Germany knew Eichmann was in hiding in Argentina in the early '50s. It had already reported this on the basis of a partial release of the documentation.

The federal administrative court in Leipzig ruled that the BND does not have to released the unredacted documents. The paper is considering taking the case to Germany's highest court (the Bundesverfassungsgericht) in Karlsruhe.

The BND stressed that the majority of the documentation is available and said that the redaction was to protect personal data and sensitive security information. Bild lawyer Christoph Partsch said that the paper believes that Germany is harmed by the withholding of the information, not by its publication. 

Andreas Nachama, director of the "Topographie des Terrors" foundation, criticised the ruling and suggested that the redacted information could be embarrassing for Germany, since Hans Globke, the head of the federal chancellery (Bundeskanzleramt) after WWII and thus ultimate head of the BND, was a known Nazi supporter. Dieter Graumann, Germany's leading Jewish representative, also expressed his incomprehension at the decision.

This is disappointing. It's hard to believe that there can be 60-year-old information in these documents which could harm Germany's interests. Germany usually, and for obvious reasons, strives to be open about this kind of thing, so this feels like a step backwards. Good on Bild for pursuing the issue and I hope we will see inside the full files at some point.

Germany can keep Eichmann records secret, court rules (Guardian)
Die geheimen Akten des Adolf Eichmann (N24)
BILD verklagt Bundesnachrichtendienst (Bild)
BND muss Eichmann-Akten nicht freigeben (Bild)
Alemania: la justicia rechazó abrir los archivos sobre la fuga de Eichmann a la Argentina (TN.com.ar)

Image of the day: Carlin on Fujimori

La Republica's caricaturist Carlin gives his inimitable take on the latest development in the Fujimori case: Fujimori's request, which has been refused, to give an interview to the media (his supporters argued, incidentally, that it would be only fair, since Elena Iparraguirre got to give an interview to The Economist - but it was pretty clear when that article was published that it was not an officially-sanctioned, full-length interview at all).

"The only thing that can help the patient is giving lots of interviews and not going to any trial. That's my strictly medical opinion."

Peru round-up

And so it goes on:

“...battles over memory are not won by punishment and bullets, but by arguments, offering specific testimonies, communicating the pain of the widows and orphans, transmitting the impotence of the wounded and the women who were raped, and above all, ensuring that the victims obtain justice.”

The Peruvian Times summarises coverage of the proposed law against negacionismo in English
Executive Sends Bill To Congress To Create Prison Terms For Downplaying Terrorism

The Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas draws attention to the confiscation of a magazine alleged to support Sendero Luminoso
Peruvian authorities confiscate copies of magazine accused of supporting armed group Shining Path

IPS discusses the slow pace of identification of victims of the conflict
Peru Identifies Civil War Victims – at Snail’s Pace

Finally, Silvio Rendon discusses flaws in the TRC's methodology for counting the number of victims and argues that the true number was far lower than estimated. His detailed analysis can be read in Spanish on his blog, here, or downloaded in full in English from here. (Incidentally, the number of victims in a situation like this is often contentious and difficult to determine, as I discussed with reference to Argentina some time ago, here.

International Day to End Impunity

Today - 23 November - is the International Day to End Impunity, which focuses on crimes against journalists and others "who have been killed for exercising their right to freedom of expression".

The Committee to Protect Journalists' 2011 Impunity Index highlights 13 countries where violence against people working in the press is a particular problem. Three of them are in Latin America - Mexico, Colombia and Brazil. Colombia is described as improving, but with much work still to do, while the situation in Mexico is worsening and in Brazil, the picture is mixed.

Further coverage on the Madres scandal

With the Mothers of the Plaza de Mayo well known internationally, it's hardly surprising that media outside Argentina has picked up on the whiff of scandal. I think the distraction is a shame though, considering that there are still pressing human rights issues to deal with in the country. Coverage has focused both on how close links with the now-tainted group could be damaging to Cristina Kirchner in the run-up to an election, and conversely, on how close involvement with politics has been damaging for the group in recent years.

53% of those questioned in a recent poll believe that the scandal will have far-reaching consequences for politics. Political scientist Carla Carrizo argues that the structure and working methods of Argentina's ruling Justicialista Party end up placing significant power in the hands of non-state actors.
Mothers of Plaza de Mayo scandal "toxic" for president (IPS)

The story is obviously a gift for anti-government papers La Nacion and Clarin, but the polarised state of Argentine journalism is not exactly beneficial for the reader.
Coverage of human rights group scandal sparks debate on role of Argentine journalism (Journalism in the Americas)

This is the example of the kind of headline that can undo years of hard work by the Madres
Argentina human rights group money spend on Ferraris, yachts and villas (Mercopress)

This is also a very critical article. Look at how it sets the scene for the foreign reader:

The group’s reputation in Argentina has soured, owing to the leftist activism of its leader, Hebe de Bonafini, who has praised the authors of the terrorist attacks of September 11th 2001.

The image is also captioned "No longer a lily-white reputation". I mean, it is correct that Bonafini has long been a controversial figure and she does make blatantly anti-US remarks. She is arguably a poor figurehead for the Argentine human rights "scene". Still, snide coverage like this ends up leaving a nasty taste in my mouth because ultimately, the Madres are not Bonafini. Let's not forget the disappeared in all this.
The mother of all scandals? (The Economist)

Argentina: Dictators on trial (2)

As always, Pagina/12 takes the lead on human rights issues and gives the trial of Videla & Co. its entire front page. It runs the headline "Ladrones de bebes" (baby thieves/babysnatchers) which is pretty unequivocal. This is followed by a long article describing the trial and its background.

Clarin runs the story too, but if you go to the "edicion impresa" section of its website which reflects the stories in the print edition, the trial is the 23rd story down. On La Nacion, I had to do a search to find the article at all and the resulting piece is less than 300 words.

Interestingly, both the latter make far more of the fact that Videla nodded off during the hearing than Pagina/12 does. Why is this something worth highlighting, I wonder? It could be flagged up as a sign of his disrespect for the justice system, but it could also be used to induce sympathy for the poor old man dragged in front of a court for something that happened so long ago.

I know that boz has pointed out this major point - that Argentina's top-circulation dailies did not choose to run this as a main story - before me. He attributes this to the lack of interest in issues of memory among the general population and sees the possible connection of Clarin and La Nacion to the dictatorship as a red herring. I tend to disagree. Oh, I do think that a large section of Argentine society probably is somewhat indifferent to the discussion of the dictatorship, but I don't see the leanings of Clarin or La Nacion as irrelevant. In the case of Clarin, considering its owner is embroiled in legal proceedings designed to determine if her two adopted children are themselves the children of disappeared people, this is hardly an issue in the past. If they put Videla and Bignone on the cover, how they could justify not doing so when the Herrera Noble case develops?

El robo de bebes en el banquillo de los acusados (Pagina/12)
Arrancó el juicio oral por el robo de bebés contra Videla y Bignone (Clarin)
Empezó el juicio oral a Videla (La Nacion)

Media Round-Up

Brazilian daily Folha de Sao Paulo took the occasion of its 90th anniversary to admit that it had supported the 1964 coup in the country. It also wrote that it changed tack in 1976 to become one of the main catalysts of the opening up of the political sphere. However, the paper sparked controversy in 2009 when it described the Brazilian military regime as a "dictablanda" - soft dictatorship, in comparison to the "hard" dictatorships of its Southern Cone neighbours.
Brazil's main daily admits having supported military coup in 1964 (Mercopress)

Peruvian journalists protest harassment from regional government (Journalism in the Americas)

Paramilitary group threatens five more Colombian journalists (Journalism in the Americas)

Threats, bribes and other challenges of reporting Guatemala's elections (Journalism in the Americas)

News/Blogging Round-Up

Colombia

World Leader in Forced Displacement (IPS)

After dramatic spike in attacks on media, Colombia strengthens crimes against journalists unit (Journalism in the Americas)

Guatemala

Threats to the Media (Central American Politics)

Guatemala, 1954 (Iconic Photos)

Martial Law, Represion, and Remilitarization in Guatemala (NACLA)

Peru

At Last, Reparations for Civil War Victims (IPS)

Uruguay

Uruguayan journalist harassed online for investigating dictatorship-era crimes (Journalism in the Americas)

Argentina: 34 Years On

34 years after the coup in Argentina, the children of the disappeared remain at centre stage in the memory of the dictatorship. The Madres and Abuelas of the Plaza de Mayo are still fighting on, and the grandmothers in particular are heavily involved in a number of cases going through the courts, but gradually they will start to hand over to the Hijos, the children of the disappeared. Former disappeared children in vastly differing circumstances are also becoming emblematic of the memory landscape in the nation.

Here's a quick scan of the Argentine press and the type of images they choose to emphasise:
Pagina/12 is always big on human rights issues so it was inevitable that the anniversary would make its front page. They go for a close-up on the children of the disappeared:

It's practically obligatory for children of the disppeared to be shown with photographs of their parents, the black and white images looking rather older than they actually are, silent reminders of the missing generation.

From Critica Digital, here are the mothers with their iconic white headscarves, and Estela Carlotto, president of the Grandmothers. Her voice has been particularly loud in recent times as she has coordinated the discovery of several disappeared children and spoken out against the prevaricating in the Noble DNA case (plus, she's the best looking 83 year old I know). Today she specifically named Ernestina Herrera de Noble, among others, as "accomplices of hunger" and supporters of neoliberalism.

Conservative La Nacion does not go for the anniversary as front page news, but does feature a photo slide show prominently on its website, which includes another typical Madres/photos of desaparecidos pose which could have come from just about anytime in the past twenty years.



Clarin also does not feature the commemorative actions on its front page and manages to misspell [president of the Madres] Hebe de Bonafini's name in this article (at least, in the version of it I am looking at right now). Well done there. Its images are mostly wide shots of large crowds in the Plaza de Mayo. Naturally, it would be striking if this newspaper were to have focused on a child of the disappeared as Pagina/12 did; Clarin's owner is accused of illegally adopting two such children herself.

There are too many articles today to list them all, but here's just a few:
Como contarle a un tribunal que es la ausencia (Pagina/12)
Carlotto: Los complices del hambre de hoy son los mismos que hace 30 años (Critica Digital)
La hija de un ex policia, en juicio contra su padre (Critica Digital)
Renovados reclamos en una multitudinaria protesta en Plaza de Mayo a 34 años del golpe del Estado (La Nacion)
Dos actos paralelos conmemoran en Plaza de Mayo los 34 años del Golpe (Clarin)

News Round-Up

Argentina
Think forced disappearance is a thing of the past? Think again.
Where is Luciano Arruga? Disappeared in Argentina's Democracy (Latin America Activism)

Colombia
I am dismayed to hear of the demise of Cambio which was an indispensable source for Colombia news and reports of political pressure on the publication make it even worse
Magazine Closure Deals Major Blow to Investigate Reporting (IPS)

Peru
The bodies of 5 disappeared persons will be given a proper burial next week in Abancay
Programme of activities (in PDF) and background information, with some haunting photos
Caso Chaupiorcco (APRODEH)

News Round-Up

Chile
Chile Magnate May Oust Left, Fights Pinochet Ghost (NY Times)
Chilean journalist on trial for accusing army officer of killing famed singer (Journalism in the Americas)

El Salvador
El Salvador President Mauricio Funes in Abuse Apology (BBC)

Peru
Peru journalist critical of government jailed for defamation (Peruvian Times)
The Commission of Inquiry's Report on the Violent Events in Bagua, Peru: A Truth Commission with Little Truth (NACLA)

Colombia: Shame on O'Grady

Ah, Mary Anastasia O'Grady of the Wall Street Journal: the columnist Latin Americanists love to hate. We only read her for a laugh, right? Every time she says anything particularly outrageous, a small flurry of blog posts delight in ripping it to shreds. I don't know what we'd do for entertainment without her, although admittedly, I'm not convinced that giving her more attention is really the best move.

In this instance, though, I can only reiterate the words of the infinitely better-informed Adam Isacson at Plan Colombia and Beyond:

In today’s edition, columnist Mary O’Grady unquestioningly takes the testimony of a demobilized FARC fighter at face value. Her column not only fails to verify her source’s allegations: it gravely threatens the security of a community and the organizations working with it. This is shameful.

Among other things, she writes,

He also told me that the supposed peaceniks who ran the local NGO were his allies and an important FARC tool in the effort to discredit the military.

O'Grady bolsters the despicable behaviour of the Colombian government in smearing human rights activists at every turn, and every act like that only serves to further endanger those courageous, hard-working people. To put this into context,

Margaret Sekaggya, United Nations Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights defenders, who visited Colombia in September, told the panel that she remained concerned over what she has called a "pattern of harassment and persecution against human rights defenders.''

Sekaggya challenged the government of President Alvaro Uribe to "genuinely address'' their concerns.

Rights activists and community organizers have long been among the primary targets of both right-wing paramilitary forces and leftist rebel armies in Colombia, with more than 60 murdered between 2002 and 2008. Violence has abated greatly with the demobilization of more than 30,000 paramilitary fighters and the routing of guerrillas from major urban areas.

But last year, 11 rights activists were murdered, according to the Colombian Commission of Jurists, and in the first nine months of this year, nine rights defenders have been reported killed. [emphasis mine]

Colombia rights defenders say they're under constant attack (Miami Herald)

Argentina: 'Julian the Turk'

Many thanks to The Argentine Post for drawing my attention to this fascinating video from Al Jazeera in which a Uruguayan journalist interviews the man who tortured him in Argentina. It's a longer clip than I would usually recommend, but it's really worth watching, even if it does give you more of an insight into the motivation of the interviewer than the interviewee (English and Spanish with English subtitles, click on the screen to go to a larger version).

In the video, Julian the Turk/Turco Julián - real name Julio Simón - veers between denying he ever tortured and justifying what he did. He also attempts to present himself as the good guy, trying to get people free or 'go soft' on them in interrogation.

In fact, this was not the first time I had heard of the torturer. He is one of the very few perpetrators to have spoken out in the media albeit, as we see in this clip, in a highly inconsistent and prevaricating fashion. He appears in Marguerite Feitlowitz's A Lexicon of Terror, where he is quoted as saying,

"What I did I did for my Fatherland, my faith, and my religion. Of course I would do it again." (p.212)

Mario Villani, a survivor of the clandestine detention centres, recalls a figure who on the one hand spent his own money on toilet paper for the prisoners, and on the other was a vicious torturer who displayed particularly pronounced hatred towards Jews. Simón was identified in fifty-eight specific cases of torture following the dictatorship, but was protected under the amnesty laws, free to pass his former victims in the street (Feitlowitz 85-86). Following the repeal of the laws, he was the first member of the military to be convicted of torture during the 'dirty war'.

News (Chile and Peru)

Chile

No Obama Apology for CIA in Latin America (AFP) - also blog comment on this here, here, and here

Peru
Images of 'Amazon's Tiananmen' (The Independent) - these are much more graphic than most photographs you see in the British press and a predictable debate is going on the comments

Peru: Radio Closure Could Undermine Press Freedom (Human Rights Watch)

Colombia: Contravia

Website Columbia* Journalism Review has a piece on Colombian* television programe Contravia, in which brothers Hollman and Juan Pablo Morris report on human rights issues in Colombia.

This video above, from the article, touches on issues of exhumations, parapolitics, dangers to journalists exposing dealing with paramilitary issues, the importance of memory and more. It's in English and Spanish with English subtitle. See also Contravia's Spanish language website.

*Yep, both of these are spelled correctly.

Argentina: 22 Years of Pagina/12

Pagina/12 has produced a commemorative supplement for its 22nd anniversary. It's called '22 years opposed to impunity" (Spanish, pdf) which speaks to the importance of human rights and democratisation in the newspaper's standpoint, and it focuses on the tortuous story of justice - or lack thereof - since the end of the dictatorship. It's basically a compilation of previous key pieces by authors including Horacio Verbitsky, the late great Mario Benedetti, Eduardo Galeano and Ariel Dorfman. If you have some reading time, check it out.