Censorship in Guatemala

Article 35 of the Guatemalan Constitution guarantees the right to freedom of expression, with an attached clause banning offensive or criminal speech.^[1] Censorship in Guatemala remains a problem in the country today. Guatemalan news reporters have faced government led censorship and other types of censorship, often in the form of intimidation, since the beginning of the Guatemalan Civil War. In Guatemala today, reporters often must contend with legal harassment, threats, and in the worst cases, assault or murder, originating from the government, large businesses, and the cartels. Newspapers and radio stations face the most harassment in the country, as television in Guatemala is owned almost exclusively by Angel González González, a conservative foreign businessman, whose success in the country is due to cooperation with the government.^[2] These aggressions, combined with the government's lack of response or punishment for perpetrators, have led to a culture of self-censorship for reporters in the country.