27 journalister og andre ansatte ved det statslige TV i Paraguay blev af sikkerhedsvagter nægtet adgang til deres arbejdsplads i sidste uge. Dermed fortsætter heksejagten efter kuppet mod tidl. præsident Lugo i juni, skriver Reportere Uden Grænser.
ASUNCION, 5. September 2012: Twenty-seven journalists, technicians and other employees of state-owned TV Pública were denied entry to the TV station’s Asunción headquarters yesterday on the grounds that they “cannot continue” to work for the station.
Some had heard talk on 31 August of a new wave of dismissals, but none was notified in advanced. During a “Micrófono Abierto” (Open Microphone) broadcast on the evening of 22 June, most of them expressed opposition to Fernando Lugo’s removal as president in a parliamentary vote earlier that day. And most of them had been subject to frequent suspensions since then.
“An initial purge (udrensning) within the state-owned media created by President Lugo occurred three weeks after the parliamentary ’coup’ against him,” Reporters Without Borders said. “In view of the fait accompli methods used yesterday, we cannot believe the bureaucratic explanation offered by the government’s information department.
“The dismissal of 27 journalists in violation of the most elementary rules of the right to work is unfortunately just prolonging the witch-hunt that began after the president’s removal in June. This serious attack on pluralism will accentuate the divisions within this unhappy and isolated country. We are ready to support the purged journalists when they take this case to the courts.”
Information minister Martín Sannemann blamed the mass dismissals on the fact that an agreement under which the Organization of Ibero-American States (OEI) provided TV Pública with the funds to cover their salaries had expired on 31 August.
The minister’s explanation was “false,” the purged journalists said, pointing out that TV Pública signed an agreement with the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) before the supplementary one with the OIE, and that TV Pública’s previous management obtained a total of 10 billion guaranis (2 millions euros) for salaries, more than enough to keep paying them.
The journalists are all the more angry because, during a meeting on 15 August, Sannemann had promised that there would be no dismissals, just some delay in paying salaries.
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