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NEW
INTERNATIONALIST 174  |
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THIS
MONTH'S THEME |
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A JOURNEY THROUGH PINOCHET'S CHILE |
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Visions of freedom
To the eyes of children The
kitchen at Lota Politics out of tune Hunt the bishop A woman's place What next? Chile solidarity |
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FROM
THIS MONTH'S EDITOR |
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He is almost certainly right - about the distortion at least. But there is no need for the world's press to be conspiratorial to arrive at biased and pre-conceived conclusions. This is the stuff of newspapers the world over: journalists deal in the images which they and their readers understand. Thus the Japanese are all obsessive workaholics. The French are stylish. The Germans arrogant and rich. The British are decadent historical relics. The chances of reading a news story about lazy Japanese, poor Germans or fast-moving British enterprise are slim. What about the Chileans? Well chances are that most people know little about Chileans as people but the media have certainly told them about the Chilean Government. General Pinochet and his military Junta are bywords for brutality and violence. One of the longest-lived dictatorships in the world, it has a record for torture and repression that is second to none. It is impossible to visit the country without expecting such conflict and, if not encountered, to look for it. The Government complains that this is unfair: theirs is largely a peaceful country in which violence is the exception rather than the rule. That is not what ordinary people tell you. Almost everyone I spoke to on my visit earlier this year had a story of oppression to tell. Maybe I was predisposed to meet such people. But what they said was clearly true. Chilean journalists also argue that their country is misrepresented overseas. But they have more subtle criticisms. They argue that some foreigners see the Chile of 1973 and the military coup and look for the images that support the vision of mass torture, arrest and exile. And Chile, they say is no longer like that. The regime is more sophisticated, its methods more effective and less obvious. They also accuse other journalists of giving the impression that Chileans are about to take to the streets to fight for their birthright. Chile in 1987 isn't like that either: there are more complex political games being played - and most of them are not on the streets, not yet at least. I don't doubt that I too have fallen into these and other errors while producing this issue of the NI. My only excuse is that I wrote down what I witnessed. What I saw was both more depressing and baffling than I had expected. And yet at other times it was more exhilarating: a reminder of what the human spirit can produce even in the most adverse conditions. The result is a personal story, with all the eccentricities to be expected of such an account. It does not pretend to be objective; it is as true as I can manage. But the people who give it whatever conviction it carries are the many Chileans - men, women and children - who welcomed me and helped me and whose words I have reported. Many of them I cannot identify in the magazine. But they know who they are and I hope they will accept this message of thanks. If they believe that this journalist hasn't got things too wrong then that is all that matters. |
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COVER PHOTO: Julio Etchart |
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Peter Stalker
for the New Internationalist Co-operative |
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The Chilean Government says that the foreign press gives a distorted picture of the country overseas. General Pinochet considers this to be a conspiracy of international communism.
