Training session for journalits organized by Pondera and IMS jointly. Photo: Finn Rasmussen/IMS.

Bomb blasts against media institutions continue to harass media as Bolivia prepares itself for the final stages of a new constitution in 2009 which is to pave the way for more freedom of speech and the press than ever before in the Andean country

With the new constitution being implemented in 2009, the role of investigative journalism and a vibrant media opening spaces for public debate will be crucial. From the other side of the coin, Bolivian journalists must be able to work freely and safely whilst avoiding the pitfalls of political militancy and irresponsible journalism.

Rights and obligations of free media

Since mid-2008, IMS has been supporting a local organization, Pondera, to develop diversity and responsibility among the Bolivian media in the context of the constitutional process as well as to promote a culture of safety within journalistic communities inside and outside of La Paz.

At the final of a six-month rolling series of workshops covering eight cities across the country from La Paz to Santa Cruz, IMS joined up with Pondera's Director's - Andrés Martínez Crespo and María Virginia Ortiz Echazú - in the central Bolivian city of Cochabamba in the last days of November.

- Working across the regions, we have seen a major rise in polarization of opinion and high-charged levels of intolerance within media circles, said Crespo and added:

- Instead of delving into the diversity of ideas presented by our new constitution, journalism in this country has become a mirror image of the violence and social instability on the streets".

Second most dangerous place in Latin America

With the year drawing to an end and the new constitution being readied for January 25th 2009, Pondera's goals are pushing to re-orientate the media agenda away from mainstream politics towards the untold stories of Bolivia's other silent majority: the media.

In Bolivia, the media has become "Public Enemy Number One" with over 100 attacks against journalists during this year alone. Most recently, on 17 November the Sucre-based TV station Canal 13 experienced a dynamite attack; and at 01 AM on 2nd December an explosive charge of dynamite was set off at the offices of El Potosí, a privately-owned daily newspaper in the city of Potosí.

According to the Bolivian Attorney General's Office, Bolivia now ranks as the second highest zone in Latin America plagued by lynch mobs and systems of extra-official justice. Coverage of demonstrations and mob violence has made reporting extremely dangerous in many parts of the country with two journalists almost killed as they covered a lynching in Epizana close to Cochabamba in February, reported the newspaper La Opinion earlier this year.

With the coming year opening around a new constitution and - with the likely approval of the new Constitution - a general election at the end of the year, the stakes are high for quality reporting free from a climate of fear. Above all Bolivian journalists must plan and protect themselves as they report beyond the limitations of a two-sided battle that reduces their job to being ‘with us or against us'.