Congress repeals controversial reform on gang messages in the media

2023-11-02 04:52:02

SAN SALVADOR (AP) — El Salvador’s Congress on Thursday repealed two reforms to eliminate provisions that punished media of all types if they disseminated messages that might come from gangs or criminal groups.

The two reforms were approved on April 5, 2022 — at a time when President Nayib Bukele’s government promoted heavy-handed policies to combat gangs — generating rejection from the Association of Journalists of El Salvador (APES), and from organizations defending human rights because they consider them a violation of press freedom due to their ambiguity.

At the initiative of the bench of the ruling party Nuevas Ideas, the deputies repealed the second paragraph of article 345-C of the Penal Code, which punished with sentences of 10 to 15 years in prison “who, through the use of communication technologies and information, radio, television, written or digital media, reproduces and transmits messages or communication originated or allegedly originated by criminal groups, which might generate anxiety and panic in the general population.

The third paragraph of article 1 of the “Law on the Prohibition of Maras, Gangs, Groups, Associations and Organizations of a Criminal Nature” was also repealed, which “declared illegal texts, paintings, designs, drawings, graffiti or any form of visual expression.” , embodied in public or private property, that explicitly or implicitly transmit messages related to the different organizations, or criminal associations referred to in this article, and especially those whose purpose is to allude to the territorial control of said groups or to transmit threats to the general population.”

The deputies argued that given the success generated by the emergency regime that has stopped the violence generated by gangs, and having fulfilled the objective for which the reforms were decreed, “it becomes necessary to reform the aforementioned subsections once more, this with the objective to guarantee the full exercise of the fundamental rights of all Salvadoran citizens.”

The deputy head of the Nuevas Ideas party bench, Caleb Navarro, said during the debate in Congress that “the law follows reality” and the reality was that the gangs were being fought. “There were many violent events involving these structures that put the life and integrity of the Salvadoran population at risk, which is why it was legislated in this way at that time,” Navarro justified.

“Time doesn’t ask questions, time gives the answers. By pressure or by reflection. Today they repealed the article of the famous ‘gag law’, a law that at the time we told them was unconstitutional, that it attacked freedom of the press. Today they are forced to rectify,” said deputy César Reyes of the conservative Nationalist Republican Alliance party (Arena).

At Bukele’s request, Congress decreed the emergency regime following a day of 62 homicides at the hands of gangs nationwide. The measure suspends constitutional guarantees related to the defense and detention of people, as well as the privacy of telecommunications, in a strict policy that has been maintained since March 27, 2022.

Since the entry into force of the emergency regime, the authorities have reported the capture of more than 73,000 people, while human rights organizations have denounced systematic violations of due process of those detained and in its most recent report the humanitarian association Cristosal reported that it had received 3,461 complaints of human rights violations and 131 people died in the custody of the authorities.

More than 90% of the people who are in prisons in El Salvador are without a final sentence, according to official data as of July.

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