[net.politics] Strangling Nicaragua;

ekrell@ucla-cs.UUCP (05/16/85)

> Your assertion that "the government denies the freedom of
> speech to opposing viewpoints" is simply false.
> Please take note of this fact.

  Excuse me, but when the only opposition media (La Prensa) is heavily
censored, I mean, the newspaper has to bring a copy of the daily edition
to the censorship office every day before printing it, and when sometimes over
50% of the newspaper is censored (and, in more that one ocassion, the censorship
was so heavy that the newspaper couldn't be printed since there wasn't enough
uncensored material left), wouldn't you call that a "denial of freedom of
speech"?.
  Maybe you want to call that a denial of freedom of the press. Fine.
  One would think that La Prensa is a extremist right-wing newspaper and that
the articles that are censored are anti-government propaganda or something
like that. This is far from the truth. The government censors any news reports
of any contra attacks and/or advances.
  By the way, La Prensa is also forbidden from using the word "rebeldes"
(rebels) when describing the so-called contras.
  I remember watching mexican TV for the elections coverage. They showed that,
in several ocassions, whenever the opposition parties tried to organize a
rally, a group of pro-sandinistas were waiting for them outside the
place to beat them up with wooden sticks. These were unprovoked attacks.
Several people were badly injured in these attacks.
  Needless to say, there were no such incidents in pro-sandinistas rallies...
-- 
    Eduardo Krell               UCLA Computer Science Department
    ekrell@ucla-locus.arpa      ..!{sdcrdcf,ihnp4,trwspp,ucbvax}!ucla-cs!ekrell