Uruguay's president, José Mujica, said he is tired of being asked about the possibility of a potential law regulating the press. In an interivew published by the Argentine newspaper La Nación, the president said he had not received any proposals for such a law, and that if he did, he would throw them in the trash.
President José Mujica accused the Argentine and Uruguayan press of manipulating his statements, after he generated an uproar for calling Argentina “a country cut in two” by polarization, after attending the wake of former President Néstor Kirchner.
One the eve of the country’s Day of the Journalist, celebrated Oct. 23, President José Mujica said the press is “an absolutely necessary and indispensable evil” that shouldn’t be “tinkered” with, El País reports.
President José Mujica told the Brazilian magazine Veja that rulers shouldn’t respond to criticism from the press, because “if you respond you lose twice,” EFE reports.
Almost two years after the enactment of the Law on Access to Public Information (Law 18.381) in Uruguay, the administration has published a decree regulating its use. To incite journalists from throughout the country to take advantage of the law, the Archives and Access to Public Information Center launched this week a campaign, “Make Your Own Request.”
An internal government document classifies journalists as “acceptable” or not depending on their ideology and recommends ways of punishing “unacceptable” journalists, for example, by delaying press releases, the Associated Press reports. The Uruguayan Press Association said the two-year old document, which was publicized last week, is reminiscent of tactics used during the country’s military dictatorship.
The government of President Tabaré Vázquez decided to fine radio and TV stations that refused to broadcast a statement last October in favor of overturning Uruguay's amnesty law, only three days before a national vote on the issue, El Espectador and Página 12 report.
The case of the Uruguayan site Amenaza Roboto is remarkable. Within a year, the multimedia platform that covers science and technology produced in Latin America for a Spanish-speaking audience has paid all its bills.
Election coverage is perhaps one of the biggest challenges in newsrooms: processing large volumes of information in a short time and with the same team that works in everyday conditions.
All political parties with representation in the Uruguayan parliament are set to sign an Ethical Pact against misinformation on April 26. The initiative was born of the Uruguayan Press Association (APU) with the purpose of politicians committing to "not generate or promote false news or disinformation campaigns to the detriment of adversaries" in the next electoral contest, reported Observacom.