ROANOKE TIMES 

                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, May 13, 1994                   TAG: 9405130105
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-9   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: 
DATELINE: PANAMA CITY, PANAMA                                LENGTH: Short

PANAMA TO ELIMINATE PRESS CONTROL LAWS

Panama will eliminate press control laws used by former dictator Manuel Antonio Noriega to jail journalists and close newspapers and broadcast stations, its president-elect said Thursday.

"I don't believe we should stay with a law that gives discretionary powers to the minister of interior and justice, and I feel anyone who thinks he has been damaged by a journalist should use civil remedies, not penal ones," Ernesto Perez Balladares said.

The current law empowers the government to decide who is a journalist and can punish journalists with jail terms.

- Associated Press 


 by CNB