Organised crime a growing threat to journalists; new media bill worries civil society

Introduction

The government’s approval and expedited delivery of a passport for a drug trafficker sparked a major scandal in Uruguay, leading to the resignation of several high-ranking officials. On 31st October 2023, Foreign Minister Francisco Bustillo stepped down after audio recordings were made public in which he appeared to ask a former official not to surrender evidence in an investigation into the passport issued to an accused drug trafficker, Sebastián Marset. Additionally, the Interior Minister and two other members of the government resigned over the case. This is the second case related to passports under the current government.

The presence of organised crime in Uruguay has noticeably increased in recent years. According to the 2023 Global Homicide Survey conducted by the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), which surveyed 35 countries, Uruguay ranks second behind Jamaica in the percentage of homicides attributed to organised crime and gangs. Furthermore, the Global Organised Crime Index 2023, conducted by the Global Initiative against Transnational Organised Crime, revealed that Uruguay has experienced a 0.53 increase in its “criminal markets” compared to 2021, with a current score of 3.22 on a scale where 1 is the lowest value and 10 the highest. This indicates a rise in the prevalence of organised crime in the country.

This new reality has profoundly impacted people’s quality of life, posing a significant threat to the exercise of freedom of expression, as evidenced by several recent events outlined in the next section.

Expression

Drug trafficker sends threats to media outlets

According to information gathered by the Centre for Archives and Access to Public Information (Centro de Archivos y Acceso a la Información Pública, Cainfo), at least two Uruguayan media outlets have received intimidating messages asking them to stop reporting on the activities of Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset in Bolivia.

Only Canal 4’s news programme, Telenoche, made these messages public. Reports from Telenoche state that on 2nd August, they received a threatening WhatsApp message signed by someone claiming to be Sebastián Marset. The message read, “Hello, if you continue to write articles about me, there will be consequences. I am Marset.” The text was accompanied by a photo of 24 Glock pistol magazines placed in a box. Marset has an international arrest warrant against him and recently managed to escape from Bolivian police authorities when they were close to apprehending him.

Telenoche journalists explained that the number from which the threat originated has the Falkland Islands prefix, and the message was received on the same number used by the drug trafficker to contact the channel in August 2022. In addition, the journalists assured that the photo that reached them cannot be found on internet search engines, so it was not downloaded, nor does it relate to the weapons found during the raids on his villa in Santa Cruz de la Sierra, Bolivia. “In other words, it is not a photograph that has been published or circulated publicly”, the programme said. “In all of this, there are elements that allow us to rule out that this is a joke in bad taste. Six minutes after the threat arrived on our mobile phone, a journalist in Bolivia received the same threatening text accompanied by the same photo”, said the news programme host, Jaime Clara.

Cainfo has previously denounced threats from organised crime. In its most recent report on freedom of expression presented in 2023, it stated that the working conditions of journalists who report on criminal activities in border areas are particularly complex, without sufficient guarantees for the safe performance of their work regarding this type of crime. It also emphasised the need for the State to pay special attention to these situations, as their existence without clarification of those responsible has a negative impact on journalists, can lead to self-censorship as a protective measure, and directly affects freedom of expression.

Cainfo has repeatedly called for the establishment of rapid and effective mechanisms for the protection of journalists in these circumstances, in line with the international human rights standards and best practices that have already been implemented in several countries in the region.

Radio Arapey denounces censorship tactics

On 31st October, Radio Arapey of Salto denounced the decision by the Uruguayan delegation of the Mixed Technical Commission of Salto Grande (Comisión Técnico Mixta de Salto Grande, CTM) to terminate their advertising contract prematurely. The contract, originally set to expire in December 2023, was allegedly terminated due to the station’s editorial line and the presence of journalist Eduardo Preve in one of its programmes. Journalist Martín Giovanoni, host of the programme “First Morning” on Radio Arapey in Salto, declared that other media outlets have also had their advertising contracts revoked.

Cainfo, in its last three annual reports, has consistently raised concerns about pressure exerted by state officials to influence journalistic coverage of matters of public interest, particularly when such reporting becomes inconvenient or necessitates scrutiny of the actions of public bodies. In 2015, Cainfo introduced a draft bill addressing this issue, which was subsequently brought to parliamentary debate. In July 2018, the proposal received approval in the House of Representatives but encountered stagnation in the Senate. The initiative has been reintroduced during the current legislative period and is currently under examination by the Industry Committee of the Chamber of Deputies.

New media bill worries civil society

Following a protracted period of almost four years, on 8th November 2023, the Industry, Energy and Mining Committee of the Chamber of Deputies approved a new bill that would revoke the current Media Law Regulation for the provision of radio, television, and other audio-visual communication services (Audiovisual Communication Services Law 19.307), which was passed in 2014 during the government of former president José Mujica.

As previously reported on the Monitor, the Lacalle Pou government attempted in 2022 to replace the Media Law with new legislation, but the government’s proposal was met with criticism from experts and its debate stalled in the Uruguayan Parliament.

The new bill stated that the survival of national media outlets is threatened by a highly restrictive legal framework that hinders their ability to adapt to new situations, establishes limits and requirements that compromise their viability, and is characterised as hyper-regulatory, interventionist, discretionary, and restrictive.

According to civil society organisations such as Cainfo, the Association of Journalists of Uruguay (Asociación de la Prensa Uruguaya, APU), Latin American Observatory of Regulation, Media, and Convergence (Observatorio Latinoamericano de Regulación, Medios y Convergencia, Observacom), and the Regional Alliance for Freedom of Information and Expression (IFEX-ALC), the bill takes regulation backwards in that it consolidates media concentration, opens the way to foreign ownership, and eliminates social participation and control. The regulation must now go to the plenary for approval.

Similarly, the executive director of Observacom and one of the drafters of the law passed in 2014, Gustavo Gómez, criticised the bill:

On 12th December, the University of the Republic (Universidad de la República, Udelar), the oldest and largest university in the country, declared that the bill does not meet the democratic standards for communication quality, as it does not provide for citizen participation, transparency in spectrum use and media regulation, and instead facilitates greater concentration and foreign ownership of the country’s media outlets.

Two days later, on 14th December 2023, the Chamber of Deputies approved the bill with 47 votes in favour and 42 against, marking a significant step towards the revocation of the current legislation. The bill underwent no major alterations from the version approved weeks prior in the Industry, Energy and Mining Committee of the Chamber of Deputies. The approved bill increases the number of licences for radio and TV services that a physical or legal entity can hold, either partially or fully, from three to six - up to four in the metropolitan area. Furthermore, the project seeks to modify the regulation to allow cable TV companies to sell their entire shareholding to foreign groups—currently capped at 49%—and aims to eliminate the fee that commercial audiovisual communication service providers must pay for using the radio frequency spectrum. The bill will be deliberated in the Senate in 2024.

Association

Threats to activist

On 28th October 2023, the Mothers and Relatives of the Disappeared Detainees organisation reported that a member of the collective, the House of Oscar (La Casa de Óscar), received a threat at her home in Montevideo. The House of Oscar is a collective dedicated to advocating for the search for individuals who were forcibly disappeared during the Uruguayan dictatorship. Recently, they successfully secured the designation of the San Ramón Barracks in the department of Canelones as a site of memory.

According to the organisation, unknown individuals threw a bag of bones in front of her house with a note that read: “Here are bones. There are none in the barracks, keep looking, fools” signed by the Uruguayan Youth Standing (Juventud Uruguaya de Pie, JUP). The JUP was a right-wing, traditional, anti-communist student organisation whose activism spanned from the early 1970s, on the eve of the coup d'état, until 1974, by which time the de facto government had already been established.

Following this, the House of Óscar declared that: "This violent, fascist, and threatening act aims to intimidate the struggle for memory in San Ramón—a struggle that has yielded results. Last Wednesday, the Honorary Commission of Sites of Memory approved our request to declare the barracks in our community as a site of memory.”

Almost two weeks later, on 8th November, a second incident of a similar nature occurred. Various organisations have condemned the attack, highlighting the urgent need for the authorities to take action to protect the rights of the victims and their families. The UNESCO Chair in Human Rights also released a declaration expressing concern: “50 years after the coup d'état in Uruguay, it is highly alarming that intimidation, threats, and references to paramilitary groups are employed to instill fear and perpetuate impunity.”

On 20th December 2023, the police arrested a 78-year-old man, who was a policeman in the 1960s, for allegedly having left the bag of bones and messages. The man was handed over to the flagrante delicto prosecutor, who requested his formalisation.

This episode highlights some of the challenges that victims and the relatives of disappeared people continue to face even after five decades of relentless efforts in searching for their loved ones, identifying and prosecuting those responsible, preserving the memory, and ensuring guarantees of non-repetition. As concluded by the United Nations Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances during its visit in July 2022, despite the efforts made, the search and justice processes related to enforced disappearance have encountered significant institutional obstacles, leading to prolonged delays. In this context, the relatives with whom the Working Group met expressed their anguish over the lack of substantial results after such a protracted period.

Peaceful Assembly

March for Diversity

On 29th September, thousands of people marched through the streets of Montevideo to raise awareness and fight discrimination based on sexual identity and orientation. The protesters denounced various human rights abuses against LGBTQI+ people in Uruguay, including the sustained increase in homelessness and the lack of management of the water shortage, which resulted in people in more vulnerable sectors having to choose between drinking potable water or covering other needs. As well as this, they also asserted that the state reproduces and legitimises anti-rights discourse. “We are in a critical moment where fascism not only threatens but is advancing and is getting closer every day.”

Israel-Palestine conflict sparks peaceful demonstrations in Montevideo

On 11th October, hundreds of people gathered in front of the Kibón building to condemn the Hamas attacks of 7th October and express solidarity with Israel. One week later, on 20th October, hundreds of people rallied to call for an immediate ceasefire in Palestine.

Protest to condemn two recent cases of femicide

On 13th November, dozens of women gathered in Montevideo to protest the recent femicides of two women: Mariana Rivero and Katherine Tatiana Martínez Báez. Mariana Rivero had been missing since 20th October 2023 when her body was found on 8th November, following her ex-partner’s confession to killing her and disposing of her remains in a vacant lot outside Montevideo. Two days prior, Katherine Martínez was murdered at her Maldonado residence by her partner, a man who fled the scene and was shot and killed by police during his arrest.

The protest was organised by the Coordinator of Feminisms in Uruguay, which has been holding protests since December 2014 under the banner “Feminist Alert” to raise awareness about violence against women. “We remain vigilant, as every time one of us is killed, we take to the streets collectively. The state is complicit in this violence through its omission, by repeatedly justifying and revictimizing the perpetrators”, said Ivana Silvera, a member of the Coordinator of Feminisms group.

According to the data from the Ministry of the Interior, as of November 2023, 38 women have been murdered in Uruguay. A report released by two organisations, Femicide in Uruguay (Feminicidio Uruguay) and Collective Autonomies (Autonomías Colectivas), revealed that between March 2001 and December 2022, 615 cases of femicide were identified in Uruguay. This indicates an alarming rate of femicides, with almost 21 years having elapsed since March 2003 and a woman being killed every 12 days for gender-related reasons.

March against corruption

On 14th November, hundreds of people gathered in the centre of Montevideo to protest corruption and in defence of democracy. The march was organised by the Uruguayan trade union “Plenario Intersindical de Trabajadores – Convención Nacional de Trabajadores, Pit-Cnt”. The protest follows the political crisis affecting the government of Luis Lacalle Pou, stemming from the release of the passport that freed Uruguayan drug trafficker Sebastián Marset and the alleged concealment of evidence.

As reported by CNN, union spokesman Gustavo González stated, “We are here because our country is undergoing a serious political crisis and institutional deterioration due to the government’s responsibility. We are addressing the most scandalous case in a long succession of corruption events involving different levels of the executive branch. It is imperative that we pursue the ultimate consequences to clarify the facts, including the responsibilities of all those involved, including the President of the Republic himself.”