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Por que este Blog...?
Cuando comence esta aventura cibernetica y abri el blog lo hice con la intencion de publicar el contenido de mis libros, los articulos de opinion escritos en el diario La Prensa de Panama y en otros medios, algunos textos literarios ineditos y mis links favoritos. Poco a poco, y sin experiencia en esto de construir un sitio en la red, arme "la otra orilla". El nombre se lo puse porque me resulta simbolico en muchos aspectos.
Hoy por hoy me encuentro transplantada en Oriente Medio, en uno de los puntos de conflicto mas candentes y desde aqui quiero dialogar con la otra orilla, con las miles de otras orillas que serpentean por el planeta. Ademas, tengo la extraña sensacion de encontrarme en la otra orilla, cuando miro, desde este balconcito levantino, lo que ocurre en el resto del mundo.
La otra orilla es, tambien, la terca esperanza de paz y justicia que no muere, aun cuando, dia a dia, vemos como se nos resquebraja y derrumba esta tierra que es de todos. La excusa perfecta para construir un puente de palabras y de solidaridad humana.
Gracias por estar aqui...
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Foreign journalists disgusted with Panama's media
posted 22 Aug 05
| Foreign journalists disgusted with Panama's media 21 08 2005, by Okke Ornstein | <><>Reproduzco un post publicado en el sitio de Okke Ornstein en Noriegaville. Gracias Okke !
 PANAMA - The tightening grip of economic and political (read: the governing PRD) interests on Panama's media and the related crackdown on press freedom is not going unnoticed outside the country. Closing opinion and news shows at FETV as well as the firing of a number of journalists at Channel 5, RPC television and newspaper La Prensa are generating international protests and concern. For example, the Committee for the Protection of Journalists (CPJ) recently expressed its concern in its annual report about the fact that the government is paying journalists and the disturbing number of journalists who got government jobs after the elections last year. The report specifically mentions a former director of La Prensa who got to be ambassador to the US. Contrary to previous years, the annual report received no attention at all in the Panamanian media. Similarly, the media have totally ignored how internationally famous investigative journalist Nuria Piera withdrew permission from FETV to broadcast her TV program when that station fired journalists and closed down all opinion programming; a disgrace for its management and its owner the Catholic church. And now it is La Prensa's turn. While that newspaper is busy pursuing new martyrdom in a souped up libel case, writer and poet Viviane Nathan, who lives in Israel, wrote an open letter to La Prensa's readers (reproduced in English below) in which she announces not to contribute to the newspaper any more, saying that she refuses to write for a paper "that uses the guillotine against people who work for the truth, ideological pluralism and ethics". Viviane Nathan's decision was induced by La Prensa's firing of Marcos Castillo, who managed the paper's opinion pages. In an interview with Noriegaville we published last saturday, he told us that the directors do not want such pluralism in the opinion section and he called La Prensa the "Ministry of Information". And last but not least, La Prensa is rapidly losing its credibility among foreign journalists in and outside Panama. A correspondent of one of the big news agencies told us for example that "I don't regard La Prensa as a serious source of news. It is more a public relations paper." picture: protest against closure FETV programs ===================== OPEN LETTER TO THE READERS OF LA PRENSA By Viviane Nathan Freedom of expression will always be subject to political interests, ideologies and economics. We can write about it, go out and defend it in the streets, but at the end of the day we can be certain that the media are ruled by well established policies and he who dares to cross the line will be excluded from the debate. At the very best he will renounce in order not to be enslaved. At worst, he'll leave because he is fired or asked to resign. Today a fellow journalist, Marcos Castillo, let me know that he'd resign as a result of "differences" with the directors of the paper. They asked for his resignation. And this happened in a newspaper that calls itself "diario libre." A newspaper that in its time, during the bitter years of the military dictatorship, served as a refuge for the truth and for the struggle of a people. It is there that I published for various years. It is there where the doors where always open and I was treated with respect. Writing for La Prensa was a reason to be proud. Today it's not. La Prensa has not just asked Marcos Castillo to resign, but also doesn't divulge other injustices that have been done against freedom of expression in Panama in recent months. I don't know Marcos Castillo personally, nor Maribel Cuervo de Paredes and Rolando Vidal whose programs were closed in Channel 5, nor do I know Abdiel Antonio Gutiérrez and Alexandra Ciniglio, who left RPC television because of "differences" with the directors. All of them "crossed the line" and the powers that be don't like dissidents. But La Prensa did not cover these serious incidents. It remained silent. My relation with the aforementioned journalists is my relation with the freedom of expression, ethics and justice. And my decision not to write for La Prensa anymore has been taken feeling an infinite disappointment at this medium and tremendous pain for the Panamanian people. Nobody would stop me from continuing to write for La Prensa. It has status, circulation, it is a strong paper that has a lot of readers. But there are limits. With pain in my soul and with a lot of sadness I renounce from collaborating with a medium that uses the guillotine against people who work for the truth, ideological pluralism and ethics. Viviane Nathan - July 26th 2005 |
por que no me dices lo que piensas?