50 years after Chile’s coup d’état, this documentary censured under Pinochet’s dictatorship will premiere this month

On September 11, 2023, Chile commemorated 50 years since the coup d’état that gave rise to a military dictatorship under Augusto Pinochet that would last 17 years – a period characterized by human rights violations, crimes against humanity, and a neoliberal economic model.

That same year, a group of people also rescued an important part of Latin America’s audiovisual memory. They classified and rescued the negative film material and dissuaded the military forces from taking them. They shipped the recordings of the historical events that filmmakers had managed to capture in the midst of great political and social uncertainty out of the country by boat.

Young filmmakers in their 20s and 30s decided to record Chile’s history in the making in audio and video. The team consisted of Patricio Guzmán (director), Jorge Müller (cameraman and director of photography), Bernardo Menz (sound engineer), Federico Elton (production manager), José Juan Bartolomé (first assistant producer) and Guillermo Cahn (second assistant director).

The shooting lasted a whole year in Santiago and in some southern and northern provinces. In the words of the film’s director:

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The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) remains “alarmed” about the functions that the Commission against Disinformation recently created in Chile will have, which could affect freedom of the press and freedom of expression.

The chairman of the IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Carlos Jornet, was invited by the Chilean Senate Constitution Committee to present the organization’s point of view. Also speaking were the Minister Secretary General of the Government, Camila Vallejo, and the Minister of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation, Aisén Etcheverry.

In her initial presentation, Vallejo said that in its first session, the Presidency’s advisory group specified that “the commission’s analysis will not cover the press,” that the commission “will not define what is true and what is not,” and that “one of the things that will not be done is to take punitive measures,” at a time when there are projects in Congress that “even speak of prison sentences for those who spread disinformation.”

Jornet said that these words dispelled some of the doubts raised by the IAPA but considered it a contradiction that the minister had pointed out the need to preserve and protect journalism without first consulting sector representatives.

On the issue of disinformation, Jornet, editor of the Argentine daily La Voz del Interior, said: “Not only should there not be policies directed specifically against the media, but we have to work on active policies. Because we, the media, are partly victims of this phenomenon, as we face increasing competition from social media, with an extraordinary volume of information that society is often unprepared to receive.”

In agreement with the position expressed by the IAPA in June that the Commission “could fall into the temptation of establishing censorship mechanisms,” Jornet added: “With striking frequency, in Latin America and other latitudes, governments tend to make decisions that restrict freedom of expression or seek to impose an official truth.”

“Governments often start with actions such as those being proposed here and then quickly turn to measures that generate censorship and resolve what is real and untrue.”

Jornet added that while this may not happen in Chile, “it does set off alarm bells, and we hope that it does not end up affecting freedom of the press and freedom of expression.”

The IAPA executive praised the debate in the Senate Committee. “It is a debate that all democracies must carry out, and it must be integrated with clear policies to protect journalistic activity.” He added: “While disinformation is an issue that concerns us, we do not believe that regulating is the way forward.”

Finally, Jornet agreed with Vallejo that the government should work intensively on media and digital literacy programs and reinforce with clear public policies to encourage the sustainability of journalism and the media, “weakened by the actions of digital platforms.”

Vallejo concluded by saying that after the Commission issues its final report in November, public discussions on the subject will be organized, and added that “this does not exclude the National Congress to debate and process the bills.”

At the time, the IAPA noted that the Declaration of Chapultepec and the Declaration of Salta left no loopholes for states to impose requirements, conditions, or guidelines on freedom of expression or disinformation. “The spirit of these documents is to defend freedom of the press and freedom of expression as essential principles of democracy and therefore prescribe that governments should not impose measures, to avoid the temptation to establish censorship mechanisms.”

On June 20, the Official Gazette published the decree creating the Commission against Disinformation within the Ministry of Science, Technology, Knowledge and Innovation. Its objective is to advise the General Secretariat of Government (Segegob) on disinformation and democratic quality, digital literacy, disinformation in digital platforms, and good digital practices. It will make recommendations on public policies.

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Chilean authorities should not contest journalist Victor Herrero’s appeal of his recent criminal defamation conviction and should reform the country’s laws to decriminalize speech, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Tuesday.

On Monday, May 22, a criminal court in the capital city of Santiago sentenced Herrero, editor of the independent news website Interferencia, on defamation charges and ordered him to pay the legal costs of the trial and a fine of 126,000 pesos (US$157), according to news reports, a report by his outlet, and Herrero, who communicated with CPJ by messaging app.

Herrero said his lawyer would file an appeal, adding that paying the legal expenses for the trial could force Interferencia, which he founded in 2018, to shut down.

“Chilean authorities should not contest journalist Victor Herrero’s appeal and must stop using outdated criminal defamation laws to threaten members of the press with fines and prison time for their work,” said Carlos Martinez de la Serna, CPJ’s program director, in New York. “Defamation should never be handled as a criminal matter, and such laws have no place in a democracy.”

The court convicted Herrero on charges of defaming police Lt. Col. Christian Beltrán in an August 2022 story written by Herrero and another reporter about Beltrán being removed from his position as police intelligence chief of the southern Macrozona Sur region, allegedly due to involvement in illegal logging.

Herrero told CPJ that he stands by the story, which came from five anonymous sources he spoke with during two reporting trips to southern Chile. Neither Beltrán nor the Chilean police responded to his request for comment before publication, he said.

CPJ could not find contact information for Beltrán or his representatives.

After the report was published, Chilean police denied Beltrán’s transfer was linked to illegal logging, and Beltrán’s lawyers filed a criminal defamation lawsuit against Herrero, claiming the article had done “grave damage” to Beltrán’s reputation and asking for a prison sentence between 1.5 and three years.

On January 18, a criminal court in the southern city of Concepción sentenced reporter Felipe Soto Cortés to a suspended 61-day prison term and fined him 680,000 pesos (US$847) after convicting him of defaming a public official.

CPJ’s calls and text messages to the police press department in Santiago were not answered.

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Chilean authorities must thoroughly investigate the recent robbery and attempted arson at the office of the Resumen news website and determine whether the outlet was targeted for its journalism, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Monday.

Early in the morning of March 20, unidentified people entered the outlet’s office in the southern city of Concepción where they stole cleaning and office supplies, opened envelopes and archives, and set a small fire that did not spread, according to news reports and Resumen editor Felipe Valenzuela, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app.

The intruders, who were filmed on security cameras, also broke into neighboring offices in the building where they stole money and a computer, Valenzuela said. He told CPJ he did not know if the burglary was connected to Resumen’s journalism.

Previously, unidentified people stole a camera, image stabilizer, and other equipment from the outlet’s office in July 2022. The intruders also set a fire in that incident, according to Valenzuela and reports from the time.

“Chilean authorities must take seriously their responsibility to protect the Resumen news outlet amid repeated attacks on its office,” said CPJ Program Director Carlos Martínez de la Serna, in New York. “Authorities need to send an unequivocal message of condemnation and take swift action to hold those responsible to account.”

Valenzuela told CPJ that Resumen often reports on political corruption in and around Concepción. In January 2023, a criminal court judge in Concepción convicted Resumen journalist Felipe Soto Cortés of defamation for reporting that a local fish and wildlife official was allegedly receiving excessive pay.

“We’ve been attacked twice in eight months plus our journalists are being harassed with lawsuits,” Valenzuela said.

Valenzuela filed a police report about the burglary with the Concepción police. When CPJ called the police for comment, a spokesperson said he could not provide information over the phone and that the attorney general’s office was investigating.

CPJ’s calls to the Concepción attorney general’s office were not answered.

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Chilean authorities must thoroughly investigate the shootings of three journalists covering a demonstration and hold those responsible to account, the Committee to Protect Journalists said Wednesday.

On Sunday, May 1, gunmen opened fire during a Workers’ Day demonstration in the Barrio Meiggs area of Santiago, the capital, as well as during looting that followed the demonstration, injuring at least three members of the press, according to news reports and a statement by the Chilean Journalists Union, an independent professional association of journalists.

Francisca Sandoval, who was covering the demonstration for the local community broadcaster Canal Señal 3 La Victoria, was shot in the face and remains in critical condition at the Posta Central hospital in Santiago, according to those sources.

Fabiola Moreno, a reporter for Radio 7, was shot in the shoulder, and Roberto Caro, a reporter with the community news outlet Prensa Piensa, was shot in the leg, according to those news reports and Chilean Journalists Union President Danilo Ahumada, who spoke to CPJ via messaging app. Both journalists received medical treatment and were discharged, Ahumada said.

“Chilean authorities must thoroughly investigate the shootings of three reporters at a Workers’ Day demonstration, and ensure that the perpetrators are brought to justice,” said CPJ Latin America and the Caribbean Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Protests are consistently one of the most dangerous environments for journalists in Chile, and it is essential that they be allowed to cover demonstrations safely and without fear of violence.”

Shortly after the incident, Chilean police detained two suspects in the shootings, and the prosecutor’s office ordered that they remain under house arrest, according to news reports.

On Monday, the Chilean Investigative Police detained a third suspect, believed to have shot Sandoval, according to press reports and a tweet by the Ministry of Interior.

CPJ called the Chilean Investigative Police for comment at the phone number listed on its official website, but the call did not connect.

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In particular, we express our deep concern for the following reasons:

1. The initiative aims to regulate “digital platforms”, that are defined as “all digital infrastructure whose purpose is to create, organize and control, through algorithms and people, a space for interaction where natural or legal persons can exchange information, goods or services”. The concept is too broad and vague, and would include all kinds of services, regardless of their size or user base, their functionalities or purposes, or whether they are websites or mobile apps, proposing a single regulation for very different realities.
2. The initiative tries to innovate in matters of personal data protection, consumer rights and protection of the rights of children and adolescents. With this, it sets aside the current laws and legislative discussions on these other matters without seeking coordination with them, establishing separate rules that do not improve the general status of the protection of those rights.
3. The proposal presents a definition of “digital consumer” (article 3, letter d), focusing the protection offered on aspects related to consumers, ignoring social, political and cultural impacts beyond consumer relations that are linked to the use of digital platforms.
4. The proposal seeks to transfer the rules that govern the offline world to online platforms. But it does so through the creation of obligations and rules (article 6) that only hinder online operations and impose new responsibilities on intermediaries, generating incentives for content removal to limit those responsibilities. In this way, digital platforms are negatively discriminated against and their creation is discouraged, reducing competition and affecting the formation of new online interaction spaces.
5. The bill seeks to combat “manifestly false” information, addressing the disinformation phenomenon in a way that is disconnected from international experience. With this, it violates the guarantees to the human rights of freedom of expression and freedom of information without prior censorship, contravening the rules in force in accordance with  the Inter-American human rights system.
6. Although the proposed introduction of “appropriate age verification mechanisms” (Article 8) is laudable in its purpose of protecting children, it ignores the fact that the proposal implies collecting more data from users for their identification.
7. The reference to non-discrimination introduced (article 9) is vague and disconnected of current regulations on the matter, imposing on the service provider the implementation of bias control mechanisms with respect to which no parameters are offered and that are finally left free to arbitrariness.
8. The bill attributes “strict liability” for all damages caused by a platform (article 15), in contradiction with its own rules of exemption from liability (article 6), and empowering the courts to double the compensation for such damages, creating in Chile the figure of punitive damages that has no legal recognition or consistency with the Chilean legal system. At the same time, imposing strict liability is contrary to the recommendation of the Office of the Special Rapporteur for Freedom of Expression of the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights, by stating that “a strict liability scheme in the field of electronic or digital communication is incompatible with minimum standards regarding freedom of expression”.
9. The proposal includes the possibility of temporary suspension or blocking of a digital platform, which directly contravenes the recommendations of human rights protection organizations to ensure and promote a free and open internet, and guarantee freedom of expression.
10. Finally, the regulation of digital platforms should promote deconcentration of power, transparency and accountability, not promote censorship and give more power to those who already have it as controllers of the technology.

For all the above, we ask the Chilean Congress:

• Not to persevere in the discussion of Bill No. 14.561-19.
• Initiate a new process of discussion on platform regulation, as a transparent, open and multisectoral debate, where all interested parties are able to participate, providing the fulfillment of Chilean government commitments to International Human Rights Law as the basis for any proposal.

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Chilean authorities must conduct a thorough investigation into the shooting of Chilean National Television (TVN) staffers Iván Núñez and Esteban Sánchez, and bring those responsible to justice, the Committee to Protect Journalists said today.

On March 27 at about 9 p.m., unidentified attackers shot at Núñez, a reporter, and Sánchez, a camera operator with the state media outlet, injuring Núñez in his forearm and Sánchez in the eye and chest, according to news reports.

The attack occurred as the journalists were driving in an unmarked car in the Lleu Lleu area of Chile’s central Bío Bío region, according to those reports and Danilo Ahumada, president of the Chilean Journalists Union, who spoke with CPJ via messaging app

Sánchez lost an eye and remains hospitalized, but his injuries are not life-threatening, according to news reports and Ahumada. Núñez received a minor injury to his forearm, according to those reports.

At the order of the federal prosecutor’s office, the Special Police Investigations Brigade of the Chilean Investigative Police is investigating the attack, according to news reports.

“Chilean authorities must continue their investigation into the shooting of TVN staffers Iván Núñez and Esteban Sánchez, and ensure the perpetrators face justice,” said CPJ Central and South America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “In a case as dangerous as this one, it is essential for authorities to send an unequivocal message that it is unacceptable to target the press.”

Núñez called police after the attack, and bystanders drove him and Sánchez to a nearby hospital in Curanilahue where they were both treated, according to news reports.

The attack took place while Núñez and Sánchez were returning from meeting with Héctor Llaitul, a spokesperson for the Arauco-Malleco Coordination, an Indigenous organization that is in a land dispute with multinational forestry corporations and local farmers, Ahumada told CPJ.

The reporting team was scheduled to interview Llaitul the following day, according to news reports.

“It is not clear who is behind the attack,” Ahumada said. Conflict over the land dispute has escalated over the last year, with reports of arson attacks on trucks and factories affiliated with forestry companies.

Llaitul condemned the attack, and said that the Arauco-Malleco Coordination had “absolutely nothing to do with this incident,” according to news reports.

On March 28, TVN issued a statement calling the attack “an unacceptable affront to press freedom,” and indicating that it would initiate criminal proceedings and cooperate with the investigation.

CPJ called the Chilean Investigative Police for comment at the phone number listed on its official website, but the call did not go through.

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The Committee to Protect Journalists expressed concern today over reports that Chile’s army allegedly ordered a surveillance operation against the investigative journalist Mauricio Weibel Barahona in 2016, when he was researching claims of misconduct in the armed forces.

On August 10, the news website La Tercera reported that the army intelligence directorate allegedly carried out “Operation W” focused on Weibel. The report, which cited unnamed intelligence sources, said that Weibel was followed and his phones were wiretapped. At the time, Weibel was working for the publication The Clinic and the Chilean public television outlet TVN, and researching Treason of the Homeland (Traición a la Patria), a book on alleged embezzlement in the army. La Tercera reported that in 2017 authorities also tapped the phones of active and retired members of the military suspected of leaking documents to the press about irregularities in the army.

At a press briefing on August 12, Chilean Minister of Defense Alberto Espina said that based on what he had been told, the operations were “carried out within the legal framework,” according to press reports. Espina added that he has requested an investigation from the military prosecutor’s office into how classified information on these matters was leaked.

In response to CPJ’s request for comment, the army on August 16 sent an email referring to its statement that said intelligence and counterintelligence activities were compliant with the law and authorized by the ministers of the appeals court of Santiago.

CPJ emailed the Chilean judiciary for comment, but did not immediately receive a response.

“There is no valid justification for the military to spy on Mauricio Weibel Barahona or any journalist,” said CPJ South and Central America Program Coordinator Natalie Southwick, in New York. “Instead of looking for legal justifications, Chilean authorities should investigate this apparent abuse of power. In a democracy it is vital that journalists can investigate allegations of corruption and misconduct without becoming targets.”

Espina and Army Director of Intelligence Guillermo Paiva were summoned to a congressional commission to discuss the allegations in the report. They told the commission that a minister from the Court of Appeals had authorized the phone tapping, according to local news reports. Referring to Operation W, Paiva said that “phone tapping is legal, I cannot say if on journalists or not, but nobody in Chile is not subject to the laws … it is a Law of the Republic to which we are all subjected.”

In a phone call with CPJ yesterday, Weibel said that the report confirmed suspicions he had at the time that he was being monitored. He said that suspicious incidents took place including a burglary in the offices of The Clinic in June of this year, during which only computers were stolen, and that in 2016, he would see the same individuals in different places. He added that the government’s apparent support for the operation came as a surprise. “This is a case of a democratic government supporting espionage by the military on a civilian, on a journalist,” he said.

Weibel said that with the support of the Union of Journalists of Chile, he is requesting meetings with several authorities and institutions, including the president of the Supreme Court, the prosecutor general, members of Congress and the National Institute on Human Rights, as he considers his legal options.

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Suppressing a protest with force…is like trying to put out a fire with gasoline.

On the night of 3 September 2005, sixteen-year old José Huenante was carousing with his friends on the side of the road in Puerto Montt, southern Chile. They were drinking beer and acting up, and when a police patrol car passed by they reportedly threw stones at it before running away. The police gave chase and called in another 12 officers to assist. Everyone escaped except for Huenante, who was bundled into patrol car 1375. He was never seen again.

An investigation into the teenager’s disappearance uncovered falsified arrest records, intimidation of his family by the police, and a wealth of lies told by the arresting officers. Eleven years after Huenante disappeared the investigation is still ongoing, no-one has been punished and the arresting officers still have their jobs.

That Chile’s first forced disappearance since the end of the Pinochet dictatorship was an indigenous Mapuche might have been a coincidence, but it was not a surprise; for the Mapuche journalist, Pedro Cayuqueo, it was part of a long, violent pattern.

To Huenante’s name Cayuqueo could add Alex Lemún, 16, Matías Catrileo, 22, and Jaime Mendoza, 24: all unarmed, all killed by police bullets; the list of Mapuches killed with impunity by the Chilean police is long. “Is a young Chilean worth more than a young Mapuche?” Cayuqueo asked in a 2011 article. “Absolutely!” was his answer.

Cayuqueo, 41, is Chile’s foremost indigenous journalist and one of its best-known Mapuche rights defenders. An outspoken activist since the mid 90s, he founded Chile’s two most prominent Mapuche newspapers, Mapuche Times and Azkintuwe (now defunct). Born into an indigenous rural community in the Auracanía region of southern Chile, but schooled in the city, his first taste of racism came at nine (courtesy of a Chilean friend’s mother); from then on, he kept a diary, recording his experiences as a Mapuche child in a predominantly white society: “The Ann Frank of the Auracanía,” he joked in a 2014 interview with CNN Chile. His writing style is provocative and often sardonic. In a media environment in which indigenous opinion is either ignored or rarely given sympathetic coverage, Cayuqueo has done more than anyone to make the Mapuche voice heard. Most importantly, he has exposed to a general audience the current reality of the centuries-old conflict between the Mapuche people and the state – and the widespread discrimination that it has fuelled.

The Mapuche conflict is a dispute over land that the Chilean State seized from indigenous people and handed to private businesses. Many Mapuches feel aggrieved by this and, on a few occasions, there have been attacks on property or, more rarely, landowners. Most Mapuche activism, however, involves peaceful ‘occupations’ of their ancestral lands. The authorities generally respond to this with extreme violence and an over-zealous application of anti-terror legislation, which the UN Special Rapporteur on human rights and counter-terrorism has said is “applied in an arbitrary fashion,” “discriminates against the Mapuche,” “undermines the right to a fair trial,” and contributes to an “extremely volatile” situation.

Cayuqueo has devoted much of his journalism to exposing the injustices rooted in the conflict, and to denouncing the sometimes bizarre behaviour of the Chilean state which conflates peaceful protests with terrorist activity, links Mapuche activists to terrorists in Iraq, and makes overblown declarations about alleged ties between Mapuche protesters and terrorist groups like the FARC. He has also been damning about the police’s use of agent provocateurs to implicate peaceful Mapuche protest groups in acts of violence.

In this tense, increasingly combustible atmosphere, those rare journalists who do not follow the government line on Mapuche issues can face threats from the police or even arrest. Cayuqueo, caustically critical of presidents and police, has been harassed and detained numerous times: in 2003, he was sentenced to 61 days’ imprisonment after being arrested at a 1999 land occupation (the police also confiscated 200 copies of his newspaper, Azkintuwe); in 2005, before he was due to attend a meeting of indigenous journalists in Canada, he was incarcerated again for the alleged non-payment of a fine related to his 1999 charges; in 2012, after returning from Argentina where he had been promoting his first book about Chile’s discriminatory treatment of the Mapuches, Cayuqueo was detained once more – again ostensibly in connection with the 1999 land occupation – by police who refused to release him immediately despite being ordered to do so by a local judge.

Yet despite the antipathy of the authorities, Cayuqueo’s own professional progress is evidence of how his work has gone some way in combating discrimination by changing the way Mapuches are seen in the media: this one-time youthful land protester received the Ibero-American Journalism Award in 2013, and now presents – unthinkable for a Mapuche a decade ago – a television series devoted to indigenous issues on CNN Chile.

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