Calling it a "spy story," a University journalism professor last night discussed the position of the Nicaraguan media and said alleged U.S. backing of a Managua newspaper raises questions about the extent of covert American involvement in the Central American press.
John Nichols, associate professor of communications, has been researching the Reagan administration's involvement in La Prensa, an anti-Sandinista newspaper published in Managua, since 1986. Nichols said despite the favorable attention given La Prensa by the American media, a different portrait of the publication emerges upon examination of sources he obtained under the Freedom of Information Act.
"The newspaper has become a virtual litmus test ... of U.S. policy toward Nicaragua," Nichols said.
He said La Prensa has received funding from the Central Intelligence Agency and the National Security Council as well as several government offices covertly linked to the CIA. He added that the newspaper has also served as a forum for Central American organizations that receive funding from the CIA and the NSC.
Nichols said the money given to La Prensa is only a small part of a massive U.S. propaganda campaign designed to discredit the Ortega administrat ion, and outlined several major aspects to the Reagan administration's policy toward La Prensa.
The function of the newspaper itself is significant, he said, adding, "Just because (La Prensa) is ink on paper doesn't mean it serves the same purpose (as a U.S. newspaper)."
Nichols said former La Prensa Editor-in-Chief Edgar Chamorro, who was assassinated in 1977, represented conservative interests throughout Latin America. He said Chamorro considered himself heir apparent to the Somoza regime and used the Managua publication to further his interests. In this way, La Prensa became a symbol of resistance, Nichols added.
He noted that Chamorro left two sons, one succeeding him as editor of La Prensa, and the other the chief editor of a pro-Sandinista newspaper, also in Managua.
Nichols said the National Endowment for Democracy, created in 1982 by President Reagan, included in its overt and covert funding of democratic institutions the subsidizing of La Prensa.
"Is a newspaper that is covertly funded by a hostile power seeking to overthrow the government of that country any more free than (one that is) overtly censored by its domestic government?" Nichols asked.
He documented the authorization of U.S. executive inter-agency coordination for "public diplomacy," which he defined as propaganda. Nichols said the cloistered "Thursday morning group," where leaders from the CIA, NSC, White House Press and Liaison Offices, and the State and Defense departments met to discuss policies of intervention, was led by Walter Raymond, Jr., a CIA official who reported regularly to former CIA leader William Casey.
Nichols said, "The CIA was directly funding La Prensa (from) late in the Carter administration." He added, "We can document a multimillion- dollar campaign by the CIA to other media in Central America."
He said a New York Times editorial which reported there were ties between the NSC's covert and overt operations in Nicaragua was correct. The Times later retracted its editorial after its opinion editors conferred with the NSC and other leaders.
Nichols said there was a National Endowment for Democracy subcommittee that supervised the distribution of supplies and cash to La Prensa.
He accused a government organization, which he would not identify, of tax fraud, saying it not only gave money to La Prensa for unspecified activities, but also allocated funds to "Mario Calero of Honduras," brother of Contra leader Adolfo Calero.
He said the financial support of La Prensa could accentuate fundamental problems about censorship.
"By giving them (La Prensa) funding, (Washington) has given easy justification for the Sandinista government to censor it," Nichols said. "I think there is a certain amount of hypocrisy in the way we define freedom of expression."
