Reporters Without Borders (RSF in French) released a statement on its website denouncing the "continuing purge" in Paraguay's public media outlets. The statement followed the announcement that the contract of Carlos Goncalves, director of "Redpública" on Radio Nacional Paraguay, would be terminated on Sept. 30.
The radio producer criticized an attempt to censor his program that airs Monday through Friday, according to the website Paraguay Resiste. Goncalves claimed the program was submitted to an "evaluation" by the South American country's Secretary of Information and Communication, the website reported.
President Federico Franco's government has not complied with his promise to "to guarantee continuity and independence" at the broadcaster, according to RSF. The French press organization also asserted its support for the Paraguay Journalists' Union's legal cases regarding the aggressions against newspaper journalists Nilza Ferreira and Ana Antúnez.
Since Franco assumed the presidency in the June 2012 "parliamentary coup," the executive has been accused of trampling the public and alternative press in Paraguay. Besides the aggressions against the two newspaper journalists, President Franco's administration incited national outcry when it dismissed 27 reporters from the state-run Televisión Pública, allegedly for ideological reasons.
Note from the editor: This story was originally published by the Knight Center’s blog Journalism in the Americas, the predecessor of LatAm Journalism Review.
