1. Fears about the excessive control the State seeks to exercise over the citizenry are reinforced by three very significant developments:
- The approval by the National Assembly, on December 7, 2004, of the new Law
on Social Responsibility in Radio and Television This
law is widely perceived to represent an increase in the State's
control on radio and television programs in as much as it
establishes a whole new series of mandatory provisions which
are in violation of media standards and represent a clear
intent to intimidate and compromise freedom of the press;
- The approval of the Law
on the Reform of the Penal Code, which entered into force
on March 16, 2005, widely understood to represent, as it effectively
does, an intent to silence political opposition by defining
dissent as a crime and by increasing the punishment for the
so-called 'contempt crimes';
- The
reversal of final sentences adopted by courts of law,
including by the Supreme Court, in what constitutes an indication
that any individual might be tried again even after having
been declared innocent.
2. For a number of years, transcripts
of conversations among opposition personalities have been
made public both in State-owned television stations as in government-sponsored
press and on the Internet. Such conversations are illegally
taped, without the knowledge or consent of the interested parties
and are used to slander, intimidate or accuse individuals for
any content or intent of their conversations.
3. Thus, the
Writ of Administration published on April 1, 2005 in the Official
Gazette N° 38157 is viewed with distrust and as a threat
to privacy. The Writ establishes the obligation to ask for private
information from subscribers to mobile telephone services at
the time of contracting such services, as well as the obligation
by those same providers to convey information on the use of
such services to the state security organizations.
