Nicaragua
’Tis the season for debate
Envío team
With the electoral campaign now in full swing, it is hard to assert with a straight face that no adequate forum exists for the opposition—although some still try. Starting on December 5, the hour-long program "Elections 90," aired three nights a week on Channel 6 (reported on in these pages last month), became a five-night feature. It offers half an hour to each of the ten parties or alliances running a presidential candidate; with now 10 half-hour slots a week, each party appears once a week.
In addition, between August 25 and December 2, Channel 2 provided a nightly half hour of 10-minute slots for each party running a presidential candidate to use as it wished, free of charge. That has now been replaced by paid space. Political parties may now each purchase up to 31.5 minutes per week on state radio stations in blocks of between 30 seconds and 4.5 minutes each, and up to 2 minutes of TV time per week on Channel 6 after 9:30 pm and on Channel 2 after 6:00 pm in blocks of between 3 and 10 minutes each.
There is also the half-hour live forum six mornings a week on Noticiero el Pensamiento, an opposition radio news program, and occasional other debates such as those sponsored by the Nicaraguan Institute of Socioeconomic Research (INIES); Managua’s Regional Electoral Council; the Central American University of Managua; and various national and regional radio stations, both state-run and private.
While a walk through any Managua neighborhood during such political programming suggests that it hardly rivals soap opera ratings, several opposition parties are demanding more space to put forward their views.
Opposition still wants private TV channelCharging incumbent abuse of the state TV monopoly, the US-backed alliance of parties called UNO has been the most vocal proponent of a private TV station. Prior to the National Dialogue in August, UNO charged in a letter to President Ortega that "as long as...the establishment and functioning of a private and independent TV channel is not authorized, it cannot be said in truth that there is effective democratization in Nicaragua." Both UNO and the Social Christian Party called the denial of such authorization noncompliance with the letter as well as the spirit of the Costa del Sol summit accords.
In fact, the letter of those accords, signed by the five Central American presidents on February 14, has been met. The accords stipulate that the Nicaraguan government must guarantee the free functioning of the media by revising and modifying the Media Law and providing equal access for all political parties to state TV and radio. The ensuing National Dialogue agreement, signed by all but Nicaragua's three far-left parties, shifted Media Law oversight regarding electoral issues during the campaign from the Interior Ministry the to the Supreme Electoral Council (CSE), and guaranteed a half hour on Channel 2 six days a week between 6:00 and 9:00 pm, to be offered free of charge to all electoral parties or alliances during the pre-campaign period.
Although the government has thus far been unwilling to consider the petition for a private TV station sponsored by former contra leader Pedro Joaquín Chamorro Jr. (son of UNO candidate Violeta Chamorro), UNO continues to press its demand. It was among the points in UNO's September 15 letter to President Ortega pushing for another National Dialogue, and UNO vice-presidential candidate Virgilio Godoy used the entire seven minutes of his first appearance on the Channel 6 slot to rail about unfair coverage and insist on an opposition channel.
To that same end, Carlos Briceño, a Nicaraguan news broadcaster who has lived in the US for the past 13 years, has been trying to raise $10 million in partnership with Chamorro. In an op-ed piece he wrote in El Nuevo Herald, the Spanish-language paper of the Miami Herald, Briceño promised that an independent TV station "would do more damage to the Sandinistas than the continuation of the war or an economic blockade."
Leveling the video field?As a more immediate backup measure, Briceño also spearheaded a drive to raise $1 million worth of equipment from US and other foreign sources to set up an independent video production studio in Managua. Briceño is currently a correspondent in Miami for Univision, the Spanish-language television network that sponsored a poll published in Nicaragua in October, showing the Sandinistas leading UNO candidate Violeta Chamorro by 40% to 39%; Univision has yet to release its methodology or sample base.
The venture, which enjoys the good offices of the National Endowment for Democracy, received a push from President Bush's son Jeb, along with US Senators Connie Mack, Bob Graham, John McCain and Charles Robb. The latter co-signed a July 25 letter requesting support from the president of the National Association of Broadcasters, who in turn contacted Hubbard Broadcasting, Inc., among others, for help. Nowhere in those communications is it stated that the project is for only one opposition candidate—UNO's. In a memo on Univision letterhead to Barbara Haig, an apparent collaborator, Briceño was more direct. In addition to naming UNO specifically, he also assured that "in the worst case I would have to pay a 15 percent import duty on [the equipment], which would not be substantial since purchase receipts could be fudged down." (In fact, contributions of material for the elections enter tax-free, and must be simply registered with the CSE when they are sent in the name of an electoral party.)
One of Briceño's arguments for his project was that the Sandinistas monopolize both talent and production facilities in Nicaragua's limited universe of video capabilities, and would prevent the opposition from making use of them. Medardo Mendoza, in charge of programming for the state TV network (SSTV), finds the argument "a little strange," since there are several existing video facilities in Managua, including state, private and mixed. He adds that SSTV circulated a letter to all parties in August offering its services to all who wished to contract them.
Briceño also put his years of news orchestrating skills to work in his proposal, detailing a half-hour format of opposition news cuts, campaign proselytizing and editorial comments. Ten minutes would be devoted to "professional and balanced" reporting on a theme of national interest. The idea was predicated on the notion that the entire opposition would unite in UNO against the FSLN, and that if they succeeded in getting the three 10-minute slots on Channel 2 in one block, they could have a powerful package. "The effective use of this TV access could make the difference for the Opposition come Feb 25, 1990," he argued; "it could pull an audience that could far exceed the readers of La Prensa and listeners of the existing radio stations."
(A July 1989 INOP-Itztani public opinion poll in five major cities found that 65% of the population polled listens to radio news. A survey done only in Managua the previous year by the same pollsters asked the sample their main media source for news. The three daily newspapers each received 9-10%, TV 18% and radio 34%. A just-concluded Hemisphere Initiatives poll found that 51% of the national population listen most to pro-Sandinista radio stations for their news, compared to 14% for non-government stations.)
Events did not quite turn out as Briceño envisioned. The government agreed to provide the half hour in a single segment, but eight opposition parties put up presidential candidates independent of the UNO alliance. Each party or alliance rotates its 10-minute slot according to a draw overseen by the Supreme Electoral Council, thus appearing every three or four nights alongside two others also drawn at random. Given this situation, UNO demanded ten minutes for itself and each of the 11 parties remaining in its alliance, but was overruled.
Briceño's effort was not a total loss, however. It put UNO's slot on Channel 2, and its more recent paid spots on Channel 6, light-years ahead of the other opposition, who lack the resources to move beyond a "talking heads" format.
Incumbent abuse—a legitimate complaint?It is a fact of political life that an incumbent party has a media advantage over those not in office. As election time rolls around, party campaign strategists attempt to heighten that advantage by planning activities and pronouncements that blur the distinction between those legitimately newsworthy for a head of state and those of a candidate running for reelection.
Few would argue that Nicaraguan state TV has not abused the incumbent party advantage, particularly on the half-hour evening news. The United Nations' observer report dated December 7 strongly criticizes the comparative advantage given by SSTV to the FSLN and government on the news and in other programming, not only in quantitative terms, but in quality as well, "presenting the adversary in the most negative way possible." (The OAS observers' report, which covers the period up to November 3, does not mention problems with the media.)
The UN report characterizes the existence of a state television monopoly as "a valid political decision, [which] does not necessarily mar the electoral process as long as a necessary additional condition is given: objectivity in information and equal access for the political contenders." While the report does not consider that SSTV has met the first criterion, its criticism is not reserved only for the state. Noting that UNO petitioned the CSE for an independent news program on Channel 6, the UN notes that "that news program, currently broadcast on Channel 2 in the 10 minutes corresponding to UNO twice a week, is nothing but a program of UNO political propaganda that has selected the format of supposed information. Thus, criticisms of partiality and incitement made of the Sandinista News are valid for the Independent News. The treatment of the image of the adversary is even worse, because it not only manipulates the news, but uses electronic media to insert derogatory and ridiculing images inside the supposed news space." The "Independent News" is produced by Carlos Briceño's group.
"Elections 90": Equal time for biasWhile in the best of cases an incumbent party has a media advantage, it also has a major disadvantage: it has to run on its record in office. Its errors and shortcomings are the logical target of opposition parties that have no record to defend.
In Nicaragua, which does not have a US-style two-party system, the incumbent disadvantage is impressive. Even by European or Latin American standards, Nicaragua has an unusually large number of parties (21) running an unusually high number of presidential candidates (10). The United States grants no space to candidates of small parties considered "outside the spectrum of debate"; Nicaragua does. Any Nicaraguan party or alliance running a presidential candidate is provided state financial assistance and free equal time on state TV. (According to the Electoral Law, financing depends on the party's share of the vote in the 1984 presidential election; parties that did not run receive the same as the party with the lowest percentage, with amounts ranging between $8,800 and $67,000. All parties running National Assembly or municipal candidates are given similar amounts for those campaigns.
What does this mean in practice? It means that souls stalwart enough to watch night after night of political presentations are treated to a 10-1 ration of anti-Sandinista critique, from all points imaginable on the political spectrum. The FSLN is daily riddled by the crossfire of contradictory and often virulent condemnation. By way of example, the Revolutionary Workers Party (PRT) criticizes the FSLN as an "opportunist anti-worker party whose policy favors the agroexport sector," only to be followed by UNO candidates who characterize the FSLN regularly as "Sandino-communists whose policies toward agricultural producers have thrown the country into disaster." The Marxist Leninist Party (MAP-ML) charges the Sandinistas with having bargained away the revolution in the Esquipulas peace negotiations, while the Independent Liberal Party for National Unity (PLIUN) critiques them for "talking about demobilization and repatriation of the contras and general amnesty, then making unilateral propositions" in Esquipulas, and for creating "conflictive situations." One UNO candidate claimed the war started because the FSLN was totalitarian and blamed all on the country's economic problems exclusively on the FSLN.
"Elections 90" goes part of the distance to correct distortions, if not the weight of the opposition. The hour-long show aired weeknights at 6:00 pm on Channel 6 offers parties a full half-hour, in a format that includes seven minutes for the party to present aspects of its program, then follows up with questions by a panel of journalists and phone callers. The four journalists are selected from the pro-government journalists' union, the independent journalists' union, the School of Journalism and the International Press Club. In theory, the wide diversity of journalists means that candidates can b expect to be challenged on biased comments about other parties and weaknesses in their own programs.
That has largely proven to be the case. Candidates have generally been more careful than they are when appearing in a forum encouraging their position. A major problem is that La Prensa journalists only come when the UNO is on, leaving the field free the rest of the time for pro-Sandinista and moderate independent press. A particularly sour note was the night the UPI journalist left his seat on the panel after UNO's half hour, leaving the Central American Unionist Party candidate with only three panelists. This posture starkly reflects the view of both La Prensa and UNO that there only two candidates in the race.
No bias in the CSEIn the UN's summary of criticisms and denunciations received regarding the media, it is unstinting in its praise of the Supreme Electoral Council. The UN notes that "in practically all cases the Council has acted promptly, even though not always with positive results." One case in which it acted quickly—and got results—was when it overruled a decision by SSTV technicians to cut part of an UNO spot they considered offensive to a member of the FSLN National Directorate. The spot was replayed in its entirety. Even though the offending section fit the description above of ridiculing images through use of the electronic media, the CSE ruled that prior censorship was an unconstitutional solution. The CSE did send a letter to UNO admonishing it.
The UN also mentioned complaints that fees for political TV space were 200% higher than for other advertisers. In a CSE decision on December 2, TV and radio rates for the campaign period were set back at the general April and May 1989 rates, respectively, with the córdoba value adjusted only for inflation. La Primerísima newscaster William Grigsby complained loudly about the decision, noting that in the rest of Central America, campaign advertising is three times higher than commercial rates, and that the CSE ruling hits even harder since the CORADEP network of state stations has had to be self-financing following the economic austerity measures implemented earlier this year. Ramiro González, head of publicity and civic education for the CSE, acknowledged both facts, but added that unlike in those countries most media in Nicaragua is state-owned and the campaign is partially state-financed.
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