Presidential candidates stay mum on Tribunal gag order

Romulo Roux, presidential candidate of the alliance between Cambio Democrático (CD) and the Panameñista Party, is the only candidate to question the decision of the Electoral Tribunal (TE) to order journalist Álvaro Alvarado and the digital media Foco y Claramente,  to suspend publications on social networks of images or videos of Ricardo Martinelli, presidential candidate of the Realizing Goals party.

“ It is worrying that, at this point, we are putting freedom of expression, which is a requirement for our democracy, at risk. We already see that in this electoral process, we are not only going to decide who will be the next president, but that the future of our democratic system is at stake,” the politician wrote on the social network X.

José Isabel Blandón, president of the Panameñista Party and Roux’s running mate, also repudiated the TE’s order.

“Totally against prohibiting the media from publishing images, the name or news of a political figure. It is an attack against democracy and freedom of expression. Do you want to turn back history and return us to the times of the dictatorship? “What times these are when the corrupt do not want people to talk about their corruption and the courts help silence those who denounce them,” he wrote on the same social network.

Diego Quijano, president of the National Council of Journalism (CNP) said, the measures adopted by the TE are “disproportionate” and represent a direct “attack” on freedoms of the press and expression.

“That the admission of a complaint to order media and journalists to stop making publications about a candidate for the Presidency establishes a disastrous precedent that encourages censorship in favor of those who do not want to be criticized,” he said.

Quijano asked the Electoral Court to reconsider and understand the risk to democracy, in the midst of the electoral process, represented by decisions such as the one adopted by the National Directorate of Electoral Organization.

“How easy it will be to silence the media, journalists, and citizens if all that is needed is to file a complaint. With this, the electoral process, whose purity the Electoral Court claims to ensure, will be flawed,” he said.

Edwin Cabrera, a political analyst, also repudiated the measure. “ I have always understood that @tepanama regulates and interprets electoral matters. I have never known that it regulates the exercise of freedom of expression and access to information. Prohibiting @AlvaroAlvaradoC and @focopanama from using Ricardo Martinelli’s image is an aberration,” he posted.