The news media with a right-wing tendency: the informers of the government?

The debts of the Latin American Democracy

In the context of the “third democratic wave”, many Latin American nations, which until then were not friendly to the idea of respecting the civilian freedoms, started a transition process towards democracy. The countries formerly administrated by the military dictatorships or the autocratic governments experienced a notable political transformation. Both the levels of the political crimes and the abuses performed by the authorities of the state (or by those who hid behind the governmental protection) were reduced. At the same time, a process of political openness takes place and allows the formation of the opposition parties. In addition, several members of the opposition who were formerly condemned by the authorities came out of their secrecy. Finally, the new present societies emerge, and are characterized, in the language of the academic ones, as “the new political democracies”.

While the dimension of these democratic transitions is discussed in each country, there is no doubt that there are evident changes in the political perspective of the Latin American region. The human rights’ activists can bear witness to that, as well as the former members of the opposition, who are now generally gathered in left-wing parties and in the non-governmental organizations. In most of the cases, they can get organized and gather with a little less fear of becoming the victims of prolonged illegal arrests, tortures, or the systematic murders that the governments of the region usually favored in the past. There still are important issues that have not been discussed, such as the clarification and the judgement of the former henchmen and those responsible for the authoritarian policies of the past. However, it can be generally said that the political rights of the inhabitants of the subcontinent are respected.

Despite the evident changes, on the other hand, the democratic transformation process is not present yet in the real possibilities of the political opposition, mostly for the left-wing, in order to gain power in the Latin American countries. The economic elite usually makes an alliance with the right-wing politicians to prevent the left-wing parties from reaching a position in the world of politics. Theoretically, that possibility exists, since the rules of the democratic game are apparently respected. However, this practice is technically a remote possibility. The alliances between certain foreign embassies with the local economic and political elite are an obstacle to expand the political options toward coherent and credible proposals emanated either from the left-wing parties or the organized popular sectors. “Populism” is usually an expression used in a negative sense to discredit the programs of the parties that question the dysfunctional performance of the market, the alliance of the national bourgeoisie with the interests of the businessmen of the first world, or the incapacity of capitalism to satisfy the most urgent needs of the most vulnerable sectors of the population. The recent election of Inacio Lula Da Silva, in Brazil, is nothing but an exception that confirms the rule of the allergy that the left-wing political leaders cause to the conservative sectors.

What has been formerly discussed keeps a direct relation with two of the most significant mistakes of the democracy in the region. While the political democracy is still standing, both the social and the economic democracy are absent. Two essential ingredients to be able to talk about the socialization of democracy in the region. For Guillermo O’Donnell it is important to talk about the need of a second transition in order to confront these problems. “Social democracy means to turn the factory workers, the students, the members of the associations, the beneficiaries of the state’s services, and the followers of the political parties into citizens”. It is necessary to say that the same rights and obligations should be granted to these individuals, in order to decide what is the role that the institutions should play.

In this context, to speak about the social democracy is equivalent to discuss the participation of other sectors, besides the business elite, in the decision making process. The Latin American democracies have a considerable debt and an enormous task that must be achieved. The leading personalities do not seem to question the need to listen to other sectors of the society. In the case of El Salvador, this idea is evident, especially in reference to the present conflict between the medical union and the governmental authorities. It is clear that President Flores is not acting accordingly to the precepts of the social democracy to base his decision about changing the rules for the social security system in the country. He refuses to allow all of the actors involved in this problem to participate in the discussions and in the decision making process. He also announces, unilaterally, a questionable solution with an endless list of confusing and dark aspects.

Another issue that has a close relation with the formerly exposed ideas is the transition process of the democracy in Latin America, specifically what has been defined as the economic democracy. The economic democracy “refers to provide the population with equal benefits through the goods and the services generated by the society: income, assets, education, health, housing, information, entertainment, and even autonomy, prestige, respect, and the possibility of self-improvement”. In reference to this aspect, it cannot be said that the present Latin American democracies have reached a satisfactory level. Economically and democratically speaking they are not a positive example. The parameters are definitively related with the way they distribute the income of the economic production in these countries. According to the official figures, the Latin American region has the worst part in this field, since this area suffers of a severely unequal distribution of the income. The control of the economic elite over the political life reproduces this disparity and becomes an obstacle for the majority: without the basics, most people cannot lead a decent life.

According to certain reliable sources, in Central America, El Salvador is the country with the worst index of distribution of the produced wealth. In a superficial comparison of the social expenses of the other Central American countries, it is evident that El Salvador is one of the most miserly countries when it comes to discuss the public investments that are made in the education sector, for instance.

The deficits related with issues such as the social or the political democracy increase the vulnerability of the new institutions. In this sense, a new vicious circle is created, which does not only become an obstacle for the consolidation of the new democracies, but it is also an impediment to achieve the objectives of its socialization. That is why the debts of the democracy are enormous. As it can be noticed, in order to reverse that tendency we need more than discourses about the freedom of the market and the apparent absence of the political violence. There is no doubt that these issues are important; however, if other social sectors do not become part of the decision making process there will be no differences between the past and the present. If the social and the economic conditions do not improve, soon we will need more than discourses to contain the discontent, because the social violence will eventually turn (once again) into a political violence.

The human and the economic insecurity in Central America

During the last 25 years, Central America has been the scenario of profound economic, social, political and even military crisis, which have affected all of the countries of the region except for Costa Rica. Eventually, these turning points have been overcome; however, the conditions that originated the crisis have remained intact, and constitute a potential risk for the social and the economic stability of the region.

The problems related to the economic concentration and the limited social investment presently interact together along with relatively undefined poles for the economic growth, a prolonged stage of slow growth, and an unrestricted commercial openness. The Central American countries become more and more dependent of the external factors “thanks” to this situation. The relative importance of the foreign maquila in both the production and the exportation fields keeps growing, just like the immigration flow and the family remittances which –in extreme cases such as the one of El Salvador- have turned into one of the pillars of the economy.

A quick glance at the economic, the social, and the human development performance indicators of the Central American countries reveals that, although there are significant improvements in the last two decades, Central America is still living a period of transition from an economy of agricultural exportations to a new economic model that has not been completely defined yet. However, that economic model is shaping up as a sort of an
enclave of three sectors that depends on the foreign investment and which is not necessarily the solution to the complicated Central American problems.

In the first place, an aspect that must be highlighted is the fact that in Central America the traditional exportations, formerly considered as the leading pillars of the economy have drastically reduced its importance in the production field. The emblematic cases are the cotton and the coffee issues, which have eventually lost its importance inside the Central American production structure. An evaluation performed by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (CEPAL, in Spanish) showed that the areas cultivated with cotton have practically disappeared. In Costa Rica, these areas went from representing a 2.4% in 1980, to represent a 0.1% in 2000. In El Salvador, it descended from a 12.3% to a 0.3% during the same period; while in Guatemala, it went from a 9.6% to a 0.1%.

The behavior of the area cultivated with coffee (between the formerly mentioned period), in relation to the total cultivated area was also a symptomatic event. El Salvador went from a 26.9% to a 23.5%; Nicaragua went from a 21.9% to a 13%; and Costa Rica went from a 26.7% to a 24.1%. The atypical cases were those of Guatemala and Honduras, where the cultivation of coffee increased its area from a 19% to a 19.9%, and from 16.8% to a 28.8% respectively, between the same years.

In the context of this tendency, there has not emerged any new kind of cultivation to activate the economic growth. The non-traditional cultivation is far from reaching the importance that coffee, bananas, and cotton had in their economic moment. The new poles of economic growth in Central America are gradually moving towards the tertiary sector (commerce, services, tourism), the maquila and the consumption favored by the considerable flow of the family remittances sent by the immigrants. The slow growth of the agricultural and the industrial activities, and the relatively considerable fall of the primary exportations are the consequences of the formerly discussed situation.

Another important aspect that must be discussed is the strong concentration of the income, reflected in the GINI coefficient calculated by the Development Program of the United Nations (PNUD, in Spanish), presented along with other indicators (which will be used in this article). This coefficient measures the level of the economic concentration assigning a value of zero to the concentrated distribution of the income, and a value of 100 to the total concentration. The Central American countries present the following GINI coefficients: Costa Rica, 45.9; Panama, 48.5; El Salvador, 50.8; Nicaragua, 60.3; Honduras, 59; and Guatemala, 55.8. These levels are among the highest in the world, and easily exceed the levels of those countries that have a low level of human development. As for the economic concentration, Nicaragua occupies the second place (in the world’s scale), it can only be exceeded by Swaziland. While a coefficient of 50.3 puts El Salvador in the fourth place of the Central American scale, and it is enough to consider this country as a nation where the concentration of the income exceeds that one of most of the African countries.

Central America is, therefore, in a compromising situation because of the recent behavior of its economies and because of the income concentration, mostly a structural problem. It cannot be denied that it has experimented a significant progress in its Human Development Index (IDH, in Spanish) –which includes in its calculations the life expectancy, the education, and the GNP indicators per capita- in all of the cases. Between 1975 and 1999, Costa Rica increased its IDH from 0.745 to 0.821; El Salvador, from 0.585 to 0.701; Nicaragua, from 0.569 to 0.635; Honduras, from 0.517 to 0.634; and Guatemala, from 0.505 to 0.626. There are no records about Panama and Belize that could allow us to compare the numbers of its IDH; however, for 1999 its IDH were 0.782 and 0.776, respectively.

It is important to mention that the levels reached by El Salvador, Nicaragua, Honduras, and Guatemala are still under the levels that Costa Rica had in 1975, and this reflects the long and winding road that the rest of the countries still have to deal with in this context. Additionally, it is important to notice the relatively high level of human development that Panama and Belize have, which, although it is much lower than the levels of Costa Rica, it holds a better position than the rest of the Central American countries.

At the foundations of this evolution (and this regional status), we can also find certain redistribution policies throughout the public expense in health and in education. It would be impossible not to notice that Costa Rica and Panama have a much higher relative expense level in education and health than those of the Northern countries of the region –with the exception of Belize. For example, while Costa Rica spent between 1995 and 1997 an average of 5.45 of the GNP in education, in Guatemala they only spent 1.7%; in El Salvador, 2.5%; while in Honduras, the expense reached a 3.6%, and in Nicaragua, a 3.9%.

The evidence of the health problem is overwhelming: by 1998, Costa Rica and Panama respectively invested 5.2% and 4.9% of its GNP in the health field; while El Salvador spent 2.6%; Guatemala 2.1%; and Honduras, 3.9%. Nicaragua has a peculiar case. In that same year, it would have invested over 8,3% of its GNP to finance the public health. Obviously, these differences reflect not only the political compromise of the governments with the social development, but they also help the education and the life expectancy levels to become much higher than those of the countries in which the social investment is more modest.

In this context, an examination of the historical behavior of the expense in education and health reveals that between the periods of 1985 and 1987, and that between 1995 and 1997 the countries with a smaller IDH (Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, and El Salvador), reduced their public expense in education. At the same time it is important to consider that there were improvements in the health budget practically in all of the cases –only Costa Rica fell from 5.3% to 5.2% in its GNP between 1990 and 1998.

It is clear to see that Central America is not going through a positive period, since the traditional development model is gradually being dismantled. The problem is that an actual change in the economic concentration and in the social underdevelopment has not taken place yet. The IDH improvements do deserve some credit, but they are in a way the result of the forced immigration process, which reduces the pressure and frequently turns into remittances for the families and countries. El Salvador is an extreme case, where one fourth of its total population are immigrants and the support they give their families has allowed the country to stabilize its macroeconomics, and without a doubt it has improved the social indicators. With a different intensity, the same process also takes place in the other countries of the region; Costa Rica and Panama are the exception once again.

Central America still does no find its internal growth poles and this reduces the possibilities that the region might have to become a part of the global economy. Becoming a part of the globalization process through the maquila is not a viable option to reach a sustainable development level, since the maquila is an unstable business that depends on the concessions granted by The United states and that does not even generate any taxes for the state. The maquila can also be a source of instability for the economic growth and the employment, due to its volatility and to the high dependency levels that the Central American countries can develop with it. In El Salvador, the maquila industry represents a 60% of the gross number of exportations, and a 30% of the industrial product. Another important piece of information is that in Costa Rica the reduction of the maquila activity (in this case, computer products) in 2001 was enough to significantly reduce the growth of the industrial sector.

The imminent negotiation of a Free Trade Agreement with The United States begins to rise as a new element that will transform, for better or for worse, the economic insertion of the region inside the global economy. That is why it is necessary to use this agreement to promote a sustainable economic growth, and promote the efforts to increase the social investment and the achievements of the human development process.

The hypocrisy of the media

The nature, the role, and the attributions of the news media in El Salvador have always been relevant issues. This might be so because the journalistic performance has played a crucial role in the recent history of the country, to the point of becoming one of the leading public opinion builders, or because, historically, the media has been identified with certain hegemonic political projects. In this case it is acceptable to say that those who control the information are those who have the power.

However it might be, today, more than ever, the modernization, the alleged objectivity, the larger coverage, and the limits against the journalistic activity seem to be the privileged topics of those who own the media or for those who work for them. The competition of the news media companies in the “information market” defines the modernization strategies and the introduction to the “top of the line” technology, with the purpose to “control” the readers and the audiences. The image is extremely important in this game.

The reporters have adopted new techniques and a new technology to spread the information in the shortest period of time possible and all over the different areas. During the last month, for example, one of the two morning newspapers is selling its issues in some of the most important cities of the United States, where a large number of compatriots live. Without a doubt, this fact is something unprecedented in the history of the Salvadoran journalism.

At the same time, the reporters have built an efficient and an influential institutional structure that, inside or outside the borders, protects their work and the media’s interests, mostly when both of these elements are threatened. There are international organizations that, by denouncing the abuses against journalism in the different countries, can intimidate its “enemies”, submitting them to the crude examination of the public opinion. Nobody thinks that it is funny to appear in the leading newspapers as a person who puts obstacles to the journalistic activities. In summary, the owners of the media have articulated a large both national and international net to keep alive its doses of influence –whether it is political or economic- in the society and to denounce any kind of obstacle that might appear along the way.

This is the context in which we can understand the recent denunciations made by the members of the press and the news media owners. Those denunciations were about the law initiatives and the actions that transgress the democratic principles, such as the freedom of speech and the freedom of the press, and other rights that are stipulated in the Constitution and in the international treaties. These denunciations add up to the journalistic investigation that has frequently indicated the irregularities that take place in the different institutions or through the public figures, contributing with this to the important exercise of the civilian’s control. Corruption scandals, misappropriation of the public funds, privileges, and the political favors are cases that can be added to a list of irregularities that have been discovered and published by the press.

One of the most revealing cases has been the constant denunciation, leaded by the news media and other social sectors, of the reform of article 46 of the Comptroller’s Organic Law. The right-wing block congressmen approved this amendment, and it was the result of a clear conspiracy between ARENA, the PNC, and the PDC.

As a response to this and to other cases, the leading unions of the Salvadoran journalists and communicators (ASDER and APES) have turned the international demand into a mechanism of defense because of the constant threats (according to their opinion) against their union. Those threats include the “gag” laws, the reluctance of some institutions to give the information away, and even the physical and verbal abuse. An example of this is the sadly famous episode of the police attacking the reporters when close to the Legislative Assembly a PCN congressman was arrested. There is no doubt that the journalistic discipline in El Salvador has come a long way.

By the beginning of October, ASDER asked President Flores to use his faculty of veto before the deplorable legislative arrangement. However, this union demanded too much. It was not convenient for the President to do that at the time. The reason was that in the context of the Law project of the Preventive Health Council (one of the three laws that support the health reform imposed by the Executive power), there are a couple of articles that forbid to the board of directors of the new council to reveal any information. If they do reveal information they could be removed or they would have to face a trial. This time, except for some isolated discussions, the news media remained quiet.

However, some of them did raise their voices to repeat the accusation that the Inter-American Press Association made against the municipalities of San Salvador administrated by the FMLN. With this, the right-wing press achieved its goal: to nationally and internationally discredit the municipal administration of the FMLN only a few months away from both the legislative and the municipal elections.

That is why it cannot be sustained with the same conviction that journalism has made a good progress in other aspects such as objectivity and the search for the truth, and all of those subjects the members of the press and the media owners usually boast about. It is impossible for the news media, as business companies, to stay away from the interests of the society. However, it is realistic to say that many journalists have dedicated themselves to manipulate the public opinion, biasing the information that they offer with the intention to favor certain political and economic projects.

In summary, some news media would fall into the game of a double moral: on the one hand the news media denounce the activities that directly affect them as a union. On the other hand, they do not mention certain anomalies that, if the public knew about them, could compromise their tight connections with the powerful structures.

That is why most of the Salvadoran society demands that the media pays back what it owes to the country and its democratization. Journalism has come a long way, but the inveterate activities such as the political servility, the malicious disinformation tactics, and the ideological manipulation are still in use without any limits.

During these days, there are many rumors about the role of the media in the construction of democracy. When this line of thought is followed it seems as if many of the media enterprises, in the name of the double morals that they follow, would be emerging not precisely as an institution that encourages the democratic process, but as obstacles.