The Price of Media Silence
Latin America's journalists may face a diminished threat of murder nowadays, but many still confront a gauntlet of challenges designed to control them. Behind closed doors, governments wield financial incentives and regulatory powers to mute media criticism and twist editorial content in their favor, jeopardizing the development of an informed, empowered citizenry.
SANTIAGO – In 1986, opposition journalist José Carrasco Tapia was dragged from his home in Santiago, Chile, by one of General Augusto Pinochet’s death squads. He was shot 13 times in the back of his head and dumped in a cemetery, joining a macabre roll call of Latin American reporters brutalized for daring to speak out during the 1970’s and 1980’s.