Agustín Edwards Eastman, owner of the Chilean newspapers El Mercurio and La Segunda, admitted last week to meeting with former CIA director Richard Helms and former U.S. National Security advisor Henry Kissinger shortly after the election of then-Chilean president Salvador Allende, The Santiago Times reported. The statement was made during his testimony in a trial investigating possible illegal activities by the media leading up to the 1973 coup, heightening the level of scrutiny El Mercurio has received for years regarding its role during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet.
Not all media outlets were accomplices to the disinformation campaign that prevailed in Chile during the Pinochet dictatorship, said Marcelo Castillo, president of the Journalists’ Association in Chile, in response to declarations made by President Sebastián Piñera to the foreign press, and previously, to Chilean newspaper La Tecera.
Despite going against the workers' wishes —who have gone all the way to court to reverse the decision — it appears that the Chilean government will end up getting rid of newspaper La Nación, of which 69% is owned by the state.
More than 200 reporters, editors, students and journalism professors came together in Santiago, Chile on July 5 and 6 for the First International Workshop on Investigative Journalism Techniques, which served as the inaugural event for the new Chilean Journalists' Network.
Ten investigative media platforms from Latin America combined forces to create ALiados, a network to strengthen mutual cooperation and find new ways to sustain independent journalism.
Before 2005, crime news dominated the regional media in Chile, according to Paula Rojo, founder of the network of regional newspapers Mi Voz. That year, Rojo and her partner Jorge Domínguez Larraín launched an effort to recruit citizens, representatives from diverse political backgrounds and the social sector to become citizen reporters for their new newspaper.
Mexico and Cuba were the worst places for journalists in the Americas, tensions between the government and privately-owned media continued to escalate in Ecuador and Argentina, and Canada lost its position as press freedom leader in the continent.
In a request for protection, Chilean journalist Mauricio Weibel said he was not the only one facing intimidation for his investigations into the country’s military dictatorship.
Unknown men broke into the home of Chilean journalist Mauricio Weibel on Dec. 15 and stole his laptop, in which he kept his investigation on the armed forces' secret services during the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet, informed Reporters Without Borders.
Chilean police detained a journalist for over three hours on Saturday, Nov. 24, on an old warrant, reported the website Diario Voz Populi. Pedro Cayuqueo, a Mapuche indigenous journalist, was detained by police in the community of Teodoro Schmidt.
The Supreme Court of Chile authorized a request for the United States to extradite an ex-military officer accused of killing two U.S. journalists in the South American country, reported the AFP news agency. Both reporters died in 1973, during the early days of the Pinochet dictatorship.
During a shareholders' meeting for the Chilean newspaper La Nación, government representatives, who control 69 percent of the company's shares, voted to close and liquidate the storied newspaper on Monday, Sept. 24.