Latin America & the Caribbean

Chile

{This graph represents scores that have been modified by CIMA so that higher scores indicate a better media situation. It is intended to show trends over time; each index measures significantly different factors of press freedom. To see an explanation for how this graph was created, click here.}
 

Reporters Without Borders Description:

Security forces were responsible for several physical assaults against journalists during demonstrations, some of them quite violent, marring the start of the presidency of Michelle Bachelet, who had to personally intervene to condemn them. The most recent, involving a charge by a mounted policeman, left a photographer with the Spanish news agency EFE Victor Salas blind in one eye, while covering a demonstration in Valparaiso in May 2008. Military closing of ranks delayed investigation of this case for two months. This was an episode that had particular resonance in a country still scarred by memories of the military dictatorship (1973-1990), following the death of General Pinochet in 2006. The atrocities committed at the time remain a sensitive issue for the press. The plight of the Mapucho indigenous community in the south of the country is another.

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