In the latest in our series of interviews with journalists who have worked under repression, Gideon Long talks to Chile’s Eduardo Gallardo. Chile was under military rule from 1973 to 1990, during which thousands of people were forcefully disappeared and human rights violations were rife. Though Gallardo worked outside of the country in the early years of the dictatorship, he witnessed firsthand what life was like under the rule of General Augusto Pinochet. 

Where were you between 1973 and 1990? Did you spend all the years of the dictatorship in Chile? For which news organizations did you work?

From 1973 to 1976, I lived in New York working at the Associated Press (AP) headquarters. From 1977 to 1980 I was in Rio de Janeiro as an AP correspondent. From 1980 to 1982 I was in Caracas, Venezuela, as AP bureau chief. From 1982 to 1984 I was in New York as head of AP´s Latin American services. I lived in Chile under the dictatorship from 1984 until the restoration of civilian rule in 1990.

Can you tell our readers a bit about how censorship worked in Chile during the Pinochet period? What kind of publications or broadcasts were censored, and what steps were taken to ensure control over the information that got out? And what was your own experience of censorship in the period?

All leftist media outlets — newspapers, magazines, radio stations — were closed the very day of the September 1973 coup led by General Augusto Pinochet. Television stations were taken over by the military. The remaining media simply followed the new regime lines. I have no real experience of those years, but I have the information that my colleagues provided me with. Censorship, and especially self-censorship, was rampant. No one really resisted. It was much too dangerous.

How did journalists get around censorship? Did they publish and distribute underground? Were there any other methods? How often did journalists or activists get caught? Any specific examples?

Evading censorship within the country was almost non-existent. Those who did it were journalists who had left the country. The most important example were the propaganda programs broadcast from Radio Moscow, especially one called Escucha, Chile (Listen, Chile). It broadcast news from Chile, although often clearly exaggerated, disclosing events that were not reported by local media. The sources for those reports were Chileans who remained here and their relatives and friends, some of them journalists who could not find a job at home.

Did you know any journalists who were imprisoned under Pinochet? What can you tell us of those stories?

I was never arrested or detained as I was not in Chile during the most repressive years of the dictatorship. But colleagues were arrested, mistreated, tortured, exiled, and several were killed. The most notorious cases I know were those of Jose Carrasco and Augusto Carmona, although while they were indeed journalists, they were also open political activists and active members of far-left groups. Carrasco was one of several leftists killed by Pinochet’s security agents as a reprisal for the September 1986 attempt on Pinochet´s life that left six of the general’s bodyguards dead.

But there is no doubt that journalists were the frequent targets of repression, arrest, torture, exile and confinement. The United Nations and other organisations have produced numerous detailed reports on this. More than 20 journalists were killed.

I was not personally the victim of abuse by the dictatorship as I returned to Chile when the military was clearly in firm control and repression had "softened", if that word really applies. But accounts from colleagues and other sources paint a picture of widespread torture and other mistreatment of political detainees, including journalists.

Was the Pinochet regime consistent in terms of how long it imprisoned journalists and activists? Was it arbitrary in its punishments?

It was totally arbitrary in all senses. While some journalists were submitted to courts after arrest, the courts were generally totally obedient to military orders.

Can you give a sense of what it was like as Chile emerged from the Pinochet period? How long did it take for journalists to feel confident and to work as they wished? What did this process look like and how was it helped or hindered?

I think journalists felt quite free and safe very soon after the restoration of civilian rule although, as in other sectors of Chilean society, a sense of "prudence" remained in dealing with information related to the military. But when human rights trials began to flood the courts, Chilean journalists reported openly, freely and enthusiastically on them, including the legal suits against Pinochet himself.

Can you say a little about how governments since 1990 have taken steps towards accountability and transparency? Has it been effective?

Dozens of top ranking military officers have faced the courts and many are serving long sentences, including General Manuel Contreras, head of Pinochet´s secret police during the first few years of the dictatorship. And Pinochet himself faced trial and house arrest. There are still trials ongoing. I think the civilian government has done its best, but, as Patricio Aylwin, Chile’s first post-Pinochet president, said, it is “justicia dentro de lo posible” — justice as far as is possible. It was a realistic approach, given the strong power the military retained.

What do you feel is free about Chile’s media environment today? What is still restricted or taboo?

I feel Chile's media outlets are as free as those in many other countries. Censorship as we understand it does not exist. The main limitation to a totally free press is the strong concentration of media ownership. In fact, two powerful groups account for over 90 percent of Chile’s printed media.

Other interviews from the Journalism is Not a Crime series:

“During Apartheid International Support Kept Us Alive"

Solidarity and the Underground Press

The Unwritten Laws of Argentina’s Dictatorship

“It was a question of surviving one day to the next”

Self-censorship is Extremely Hard to Shake off

"I could hear my wife being tortured in the next cell"

Living in Fear: Censorship under Pinochet

Brazil’s Symbol of Freedom and Truth