The same promises once again

The victims of censorship?

During the last days, a vivid polemic has been created about the independence of the journalists and the censorship that some of them report. A couple of events promoted the debate. On the one hand, there is an awkward situation that confronts a journalist with those who are responsible for the news media he works for. The journalist accuses his superiors for censuring his work, due to alleged political pressures that come from a political party. In a public letter addressed to the Procurator for the Defense of the Human Rights, Carlos Herman Bruch expressed his consternation for what he calls a crude censorship allegedly imposed by the information director of Channel 33. Such decision would have been hypothetically influenced by a political pressure made by the FMLN.

Another issue that has motivated the discussion among the different actors has to do with the effort to establish a mutual fund for the benefit of the Salvadoran journalists. Even if no one doubts about the benefits of such initiative, some people question the request made to the Legislative Assembly to approve a law that authorizes the Salvadoran State to go ahead with the first expenditure to establish a fund. This article intends to examine these issues in the light of the problems that most of the national journalists face while in the exercise of their profession.

The denunciation made by the presenter of the program “Generaccion” created a controversial discussion and it practically became a scandal. The Association of Salvadoran Journalists (APES, in Spanish) had to intervene –apparently because of the initiative of the leading members of the channel in question-, and recommended the integral broadcasting of the program. Those responsible for the channel followed that advice, and the program aired on Sunday July 20th . For an hour and a half, the audience had the chance to evaluate if there was the actual need to censure the program; or to tell if, on the contrary, the thesis held by the director of information of the channel was true. According to his opinion, the program had not been professionally conducted.

There are several conclusions that can be reached after watching that program. In the first place it was a disorganized show, and inefficiently conducted, journalistically speaking. As he usually does, the presenter of “Generaccion” started with an endless list of his virtues as a free thinker, and as a defender of the freedom of speech. Further on, he lost control of the program in which his guests (the public as well as the panelist) became engaged in an authentic street fight. The mutual insult between the panelist and the live audience was the predominant aspect for an hour and a half, and the presenter was not able to handle the situation.

In the second place there does not seem to be a reason to support the censure thesis that was reported. During the program, Schafik Handal did not say anything different from what he usually says during his interviews with the news media. This idea does not intend to justify the behavior of the FMLN’s leader, who was not even able to act more maturely than the group of young people who were interrogating him. People will say, and they will be right, that the audience was a group young people with a questionable intellectuality. They acted ineptly, especially when it came to ask questions and present their arguments. However, Handal’s behavior also leaves a lot to be desired, and says a lot about his capacity to occupy the presidency of the country. A politician who aspires to occupy an important position should be able to control himself, so that he does not become the laughing stock of his opponents.

Another issue that has caught the public attention is the initiative of the APES to create a mutual fund for the Salvadoran journalists. The initiative has been criticized because the funds to start the project would come from the state. Some are speaking about the loss of independence of the journalists, who would be in an uncomfortable posture when they try to criticize the politicians. The most tragic aspect of the matter is that those who say that they are trying to end with the corruption of the journalists consider that the best option is to request the support of the private business sector. What seems odd about all this is that we are talking about those who are responsible for a group of news media that pays miserable salaries to their workers, but who also live with the tax exemptions that the state has granted to them. In this case, the President says that it is healthy, and that it helps to end with any sort of harassment that might come from the authorities of the Internal Revenue Service. However, he defends the thesis that sees in a possible assistance for those who look for the information that becomes profitable for the owners of the news media, as a concession that, in the long term, might be pernicious for the reporters.

The most outstanding feature of the debate about the Salvadoran journalism, in the case of the alleged censure that the conductor of “Generaccion” reported as well as in the postures about the need to create a mutual fund for the journalists, has been hypocrisy. The hypocrisy of some people who hide behind their incompetence to sell themselves as the martyrs of the freedom of expression. A freedom, without a doubt, that is under a constant menace in this country. However, it is necessary to say that those who have been victimized by this situation have never been actually able to be heard. In addition, these journalists that consider themselves the stars of the show are not concerned about these cases, because they would have to face a set of serious admonitions that could come from their bosses.

Those who are not happy about asking the state for a fund are actually those who take advantage of the poorest sectors. Many of their friends are swimming in a pool of corruption located at the highest governmental circles. In addition, it is not convincing to say that it is perverse to ask for a concession of the state. The journalists do not lose their independence from the politicians if the creation of a fund is approved. They lose their independence when they fear that they might be fired at any time.

In any part of the world, the different unions of workers fight to obtain certain benefits from the state. And by doing that they do not necessarily lose their freedom or their independence. The capacity for being independent is lost when the deals are made in the dark and the people start looking for personal favors. It is clear that this has nothing to do with the present demand of the APES. There is no doubt that the best way to dignify the journalistic profession is to achieve a better remuneration. Instead of criticizing the initiative of the APES, the news media should be paying better salaries to their reporters. However, while those who own the news media companies, who are allegedly shocked by the request of the APES, do not decide to share their profits with their workers, the most viable solution seems to be this one. On the contrary, many journalists will keep selling their souls to the best bidder.

What seems curious about this whole matter (defending the freedom of the journalists), is that this sort of scandals are made forgetting about the acquiescent condition of many news media companies before several political groups. Many of those who seem shocked by the requests of the journalists are agents of the official party, and that is why they defend its cause without feeling ashamed. The aversion against the political control and the ethical problem about which several people talk seem to be approached only when they are looking to gain more independence from their own political parties.

The economic and the social crisis of coffee

One of the most critical problems of the Salvadoran economy is the crisis of the coffee-growing sector. This sector is going through a difficult stage. At first, it began to experience serious difficulties due to the increasing offer of coffee at a world’s scale, which deteriorated the prices of this product in the international markets. More recently, the sector has had to face a number of serious difficulties due to the impact of several natural events. These aspects have been gathered to present a somber perspective about the future of the Salvadoran coffee-growers.

The problems of the coffee sector have become more complicated during this year with the seizure and the presence of the plagues at the haciendas. The coffee-growers have asked the government to stop, as soon as possible, the seizures, and give them a prudent term to face the debts that constantly overwhelm them. In this sense, the coffee-growers have been looking for the way to stipulate a law of emergency that might end with the effects of the seizures and allow them to refinance the debts of the whole sector. However, a few weeks ago, the President vetoed this initiative.

Recently, the Salvadoran Association of the Baking System (ABANSA, in Spanish) has showed their interest in refinancing a part of the debts of the coffee-growing sector. ABANSA has chosen to refinance 346 cases. For the Coffee Forum, this measure is not enough, since there are 4,359 cases that would not be taken care of. According to this forum, the solution for this problem is to decree an emergency law that could help the whole sector. In this sense, the coffee-growers have been pressuring the different political parties of the Legislative Assembly to annul the veto of the Executive power.

In addition to this problem, the plague has begun to affect 79% of the coffee park. According to Alfonso Salaverria, the director of the Forum, this is the result of the lack of interest of the government in one of the most important sectors of the economy. Salaverria declared that “How can it be that in El Salvador there are no national policies to prevent this kind of incidents, which are inevitable, but that are constantly overlooked”. It seems that this plague is a death blow for this sector.

For many, the deterioration of this sector obeys mostly to the fact that the less developed economies, which traditionally have taken care of the agricultural exports, are elaborating manufactured products. This is due to the international division of labor that the world has begun to experiment because of the boom of globalization. In the Salvadoran case, the activity of the external sector of the economy no longer rests on the traditional products, but on the maquila industry. This industrial sector represents over 50% of the total value of the country’s exports.

Others consider that, despite the transformation of the Salvadoran economy during the last few years, the actual problem is the poor performance of the state. In other words, the crisis that the coffee-growers go through is the result of overlooking the agricultural sector. According to this vision, the government has not understood the importance that this product has for the families who live at the country’s rural areas. During the harvests, these families are able to work and face their most important economic needs.

A third opinion sustains that what happens in the Salvadoran case is the result of the enormous benefits obtained by those who negotiate the coffee in the markets. The problem is that there is a group of merchants that obtain a highly profitable result from these activities, since while they manage to successfully place the coffee products in the international market, they pay very low prices to the coffee-growers. An evidence of this situation is what happens in the developed countries that import coffee. In these countries, the people pay a high price for a cup of coffee, and, therefore, it is difficult to understand how a product that in the final market is sold at such a good price, can generate economic loses for the coffee growers in the less developed countries.

The relation between the government and the coffee-growers generally overlooks those sectors that are most affected by this problem. There are a high number of laborers who, because of the crisis, have to face terrible economic conditions. That is why the poverty in the coffee-growing areas has become more evident during the last years. The crisis has affected the sons and daughters of the laborers, since there is a high level of malnutrition in the coffee-growing areas. One out every two children suffers of a chronic malnutrition that does not allow him to grow normally. That is why the Food Program of the World (PMA, in Spanish) has made an effort to bring food to these areas and follow the physical development of the affected children. However, the efforts have not been enough to face the needs of the families who live in the rural areas.

The crisis of the Salvadoran agricultural sector has been more intense inside the coffee-growing sector. This is no longer a source of employment for the people who looked for jobs during the harvest season. This is due to, among other aspects, the lack of an efficient agricultural policy for the country. In this sense, the Ministry of Agriculture has been strongly criticized because of the lack of coherent projects for the long term. This has led the Executive power to make a series of expenses that, in the end, have not been helpful to resolve the crisis.

For the Executive power, the solution for the problem of the coffee-growing sector, and, in general, for the problem of the agricultural sector as a whole, is to establish a free trade agreement with the United States in order to obtain certain benefits through a productive conversion aimed to the cultivation of tropical fruits. To speak about a “productive conversion” in technical terms is not an easy task. This means that it is necessary to know the essential requirements of this process. On the other hand, it is also necessary to consider a very delicate social aspect. In this country there is a considerable number of families who live in the rural areas and who, for years, have subsisted because of the cultivation of coffee. It would be necessary to see if these families will have the opportunity to change their economic activities.

Finally, it is necessary that the government realize the kind of impact that the agricultural sector will suffer if a free trade agreement with the United States is ratified. As long as this country maintains the same level of subsidies for its agricultural production, our agricultural sector will be affected by the arrival of foreign and economical agricultural products. It seems that this adverse situation of the agricultural sector began a few years ago. During the eighties, the problem was that the crisis of the agricultural reform was not adequately administrated. During the nineties, the problems that came from the international markets became more evident, along with the economic transformation of the country. Now, at the doors of the 21st Century, a commercial agreement that does not consider the sensibility of the agricultural sector can undermine what is left of it.