San Salvador, El Salvador, April 7 (BNA): The El Salvador Congress, which is pushing for more dramatic government crackdown on gangs, has passed 10 to 15 year prison sentences for news media that reproduce or publish messages from gangs, causing concern in the Press Freedom Groups.
The vote was the latest in a series of legislative measures against gangs after 62 suspected gang killings on March 26, which prompted President Neb Bukele to seek congressional approval for a state of emergency.
This was followed by harsh measures against imprisoned gang members and an increase in prison sentences, as well as the arrest of about 6,000 suspected gang members, according to the Associated Press.
But the new law extends Bukele’s attack to the press, one of his frequent goals.
“We consider these reforms a clear attempt to censor the media,” the Association of Journalists of El Salvador said in a statement on Wednesday. “Preventing the press from reporting the reality in which the thousands of people who live in these gang-controlled societies live… would create an illusion that is not faithful to the truth.”
The American Press Association said the new law amounted to “criminalizing the work of media and journalists.”
The association’s president, Jorge Canahuati, described it as “a legal muzzle, direct and prior censorship of the media that will have disastrous consequences for Salvadoran society.”
“A state cannot prevent violence by censoring public opinion, since it is precisely in public debate that societies find solutions to their problems,” Kanahuati wrote.
The reforms were passed with the support of 63 deputies out of 84 deputies and took effect when they were published on Tuesday evening in the Official Gazette.
The law states that “radio, television, written and digital media” will face a prison sentence of 10 to 15 years for “reproducing or transmitting messages or statements made or purported to be made by the said criminal groups that could generate anxiety and panic. population”.
The measure also stipulates prison terms of 10 to 15 years for drawing a type of graffiti typically used to mark gang areas in neighborhoods across El Salvador.
Bukele criticized the media, as well as NGOs and international bodies that criticized some of the actions taken against the gangs. He accuses them of siding with the criminals.
Criminal defense attorney Tahnia Pasteur said the legal reform clearly places a ban on media outlets publishing gang messages, but its scope was not comprehensive.
For example, she didn’t think the ban would extend to someone writing a book about gangs, but media outlets distributing messages from the gang about their control over areas that could cause panic seem to conflict with the measure, she said.
Others had a broader explanation. “It doesn’t just affect us, it affects people’s information. This reform is trying to get people to censor themselves and not to say anything,” Cesar Fagwaga, president of the Syndicate of Journalists, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
Under the state of emergency, the government restricted freedom of association, suspended the right to be informed of one’s rights at the time of arrest, and denied access to lawyers. The suspect can now be held for 15 days without charges instead of 72 hours. Imprisoned gang members cut their meals down to twice a day, and were not allowed to leave their cells and take their bed.
Bukele said via Twitter on Tuesday that he had sent proposals to the legislature, adding: “We’ll see again who’s with the people and who’s with the gangs.”
“With these reforms we are telling gangsters that they cannot send audio or text strings to create fear in the population,” Marcela Pineda, a lawmaker from Bukele’s New Ideas party, said on Tuesday.
Bukele had taken up the topic earlier in the day, saying there were rumors that gangs might retaliate against the crackdown by attacking civilians, and threatening to withhold food from imprisoned gang members if they did.
The Journalists’ Syndicate also noted reports that the Bukele administration, like other administrations before it, made deals with gangs to lower the murder rate and offer political support in exchange for other benefits. The US Treasury reiterated the allegations in December, saying the Bukele government had purchased gang support with financial benefits and concessions for imprisoned leaders. Bukele strongly denied the accusations.
I don’t care what international organizations say. “Let them come here to protect our people,” the president said. “They can take their gang members if they want; we will give them all.”