gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) (10/29/85)
In article <7280@ucla-cs.ARPA> ekrell@ucla-cs.UUCP (Eduardo Krell)
writes that "La Prensa is now the only opposition media in Nicaragua."
It is true that La Prensa is the only main newspaper in Nicaragua that
opposes the Sandinistas. However, there is no denying the fact that La
Presna is a right wing newspaper. Although many articles that have
been censored by the Sandinistas have been censored without apparent
reason, this does not belie the fact that La Prensa does all that it
can do to undermine the government there, and many of the articles it
tries to publish would bring about successful libel suits in the
United States if they were attempted by papers here. La Prensa
repeatedly tries things like printing fallacious articles about food
shortages in order to precipitate such shortages and otherwise
destabilize the economy. While one may agree or disagree with the
desireability of its doing so, there no getting around the fact that
the U.S. government also severely restricted what papers could print
during World War II. It may be the case that the Sandinistas are
reacting more repressively than the current military situation
warrants, there is not getting around the fact that La Prensa is a
rabidly right wing paper. Citing the fact that the Chamorros were
anti-Somoza before the revolution does not change this fact. Bear in
mind that Chamorros run the other two papers in Managua: The FSLN
(Sandinista) Barricada and the independent (but pro-government) El
Nuevo Diario.
Gil Neiger
Computer Science Department
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
{uw-beaver,ihnp4,decvax,vax135}!cornell!gil (UUCP)
gil@Cornell.ARPA (ARPAnet) ; gil@CRNLCS (BITNET)ekrell@ucla-cs.UUCP (10/30/85)
In article <176@cornell.UUCP> gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) writes: >... there is no denying the fact that La >Presna is a right wing newspaper. and just what makes a newspaper to be right wing?. By the same reasoning, I can call all opposition magazines in Chile to be left wing (like the government does call them), but I know they are not. When there is a left wing government on power, that doesn't make all opposition media a right wing one and viceversa. >the U.S. government also severely restricted what papers could print >during World War II. there is no comparison. The censorship to La Prensa began before the fighting against the contras started. It has worsen ever since. >Citing the fact that the Chamorros were >anti-Somoza before the revolution does not change this fact. Bear in >mind that Chamorros run the other two papers in Managua: The FSLN >(Sandinista) Barricada and the independent (but pro-government) El >Nuevo Diario. I know that. Barricada and La Prensa are run by two Chamorro brothers. Also, your wording suggest that the Chamorros who run La Prensa were anti-somozas before the revolution but changed their mind after it. The fact is they remain anti-somozas and all they want is a free, democratic Nicaragua. -- Eduardo Krell UCLA Computer Science Department ekrell@ucla-locus.arpa ..!{sdcrdcf,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!ekrell
sth@rayssd.UUCP (Stephen T. Hirsch) (10/31/85)
Before anybody totally condemns out of hand what Nicaragua does in response
to their civil war, remember a country that suspended habeus corpus and set
up political prisoner camps during its civil war, right in its own territory
for its own people. The country was the United States, and the President was
Lincoln. It was perfectly constitutional and probably justifiable, but the
net effect was to suspend the civil liberties of the American people.
Steve Hirsch, {allegra, decvax!brunix, linus, ccieng5}!rayssd!sth
Raytheon Co, Submarine Signal Div., Portsmouth, RIaz@inmet.UUCP (11/01/85)
> [Gil Neiger] ... However, there is no denying the fact that La > Presna is a right wing newspaper. > ... this does not belie the fact that La Prensa does all that it > can do to undermine the government there, > ... there is not getting around the fact that La Prensa is a > rabidly right wing paper... > ... La Prensa repeatedly tries things like printing fallacious > articles about food shortages in order to precipitate such shortages > and otherwise destabilize the economy. I knew all the time, just could not prove it, that all those people talking about hunger in USA are rabidly ultra-left commies trying to precipitate such hunger and overthrow existing government. :-) Alex Zatsman.
gil@cornell.UUCP (Gil Neiger) (11/02/85)
In article <7316@ucla-cs.ARPA> ekrell@ucla-cs.UUCP (Eduardo Krell) writes
that there is no comparison between the press censorship exhibited by the
U.S. during World War II and that now being practiced by the Nicaraguan
government. Let us not forget that there is also a great difference
between the role of newspapers in the United States and in Nicaragua.
In Nicaragua (and elsewhere in Latin America) newspapers play a very active
role in the political arena. This is certainly no cause for censorship.
The point regarding much (but certainly not all) of the censorship of
La Prensa is that the paper is making an effort to undermine the very
fragile economic and political situation in Nicaragua. If newspapers
with large circulations in the U.S. were doing things like encouraging
people to cheat at food rationing during World War II it might well have
been the case the U.S. government would have reacted more strongly than
it did. I am not trying to defend all the press censorship in Nicaragua.
I would just like to be clear that La Prensa is not a paper anything like
a typical North American daily.
--
Gil Neiger
Computer Science Department
Cornell University
Ithaca NY 14853
{uw-beaver,ihnp4,decvax,vax135}!cornell!gil (UUCP)
gil@Cornell.ARPA (ARPAnet) ; gil@CRNLCS (BITNET)