• by IPS Correspondents (santiago)
• Saturday, December 17, 1994
• Inter Press Service

SANTIAGO, Dic 17 (IPS) - Police used a water cannon on Friday to disperse demonstrators protesting the partial closing of the Chilean Communist Party daily 'El Siglo.'

Some 100 members of the communist party (PC), led by Secretary General Gladys Marin, marched on the 'la Moneda' - the Presidential palace - to present President Eduardo Frei with a letter protesting the "strangulation" of the newspaper. Three people were arrested.

'El Siglo' was losing 500,000 dollars per month and, according to director Juan Lagos, banks refused to provide the publication with financial assistance because of "the nature of our newspaper."

The PC claimed that the financial crisis was a consequence of "neoliberal" economics and government policies, as the daily was denied access to business and government advertising.

'El Siglo' was banned and became a clandestine weekly following the military coup in 1973, and once again became a daily following democratic elections in 1990.

However, the paper could not boost circulation enough to compensate for the lack of advertising, and the print run remained at 4,000 issues.

The PC leaders blame the government for not returning the 'Horizonte' printing shop, which belonged to the Party until it was expropriated by the military in 1973.

Lagos claimed that Chile is "killing the freedom of expression," adding that "while the media which fought for the return to democracy is disappearing, the only new print established belongs to the right."

Since the end of the dictatorship in 1990, the newspaper 'Fortin Mapocho,' the magazines 'Cauce' and 'Analisis' and the radio station 'Umbral' - all of which opposed Pinochet - have disappeared.

© Inter Press Service (2014) — All Rights Reserved. Original source: Inter Press Service

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