Press Freedom and Economic Development in Latin America

Capitalism has been oftenly attacked under the pretexts that it does not promote development and that, among other things, it hinders the exercise of the freedom of the press. This report gives the data that shows exactly the opposite analyzing indexes of press freedom, economic liberty and per capita GNI.

Latin America is now facing a process of change. After the so called “neoliberal” decade, several countries of the region have focused in destroying the remaining of openness and economic integration, deregulation and privatization remnants of former administrations. Thus the current measures intend to “compensate” the losers (the poor and the unemployed) and “punish” the winners of the last decade (big local and international firms) and to take part in the fight against the economic “imperialism” resultant of the globalization. These open intentions are generally oriented to attack globalization and free market.

In opposition to this trends, this research report will show that today, in Latin America, those countries with more economic freedom tend to evidence a higher freedom of the press and a higher economic development.

Hernán Alberro is Subdirector of the Center for the Opening and Development of Latin America (CADAL). He has a BA in journalism (Universidad del Salvador) and is currently on a Master in Management and Public Policies (Universidad de San Andrés).