Restrictions imposed on media, association says

Intimidation and threats against journalists in Venezuela. The Associated Press

SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (March 22, 8:06 p.m. AST) - National security is being used as a pretext to clamp down on the media in the United States, the Inter-American Press Association said Saturday. The association's president Rafael Molina said after the Sept. 11 terror attacks "restrictions were imposed on the press and there were official suggestions to the media about what to publish and what not to publish, using national security as a pretext."

Molina said among the most extreme cases was last month's expulsion of an Iraqi journalist from the United States who was dubbed "harmful" to the security of the country. Iraq in return expelled four U.S. journalists from Baghdad.

"It seems both cases were excessive," said Molina, who heads Ahora newspaper in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. "Journalists should not be treated as spies, and actions like this are a flagrant violation of the right of all people to transmit and receive information without distinction by nationality."

The association also expressed concern about violence against journalists in war-torn Colombia, where four journalists have been killed, nine kidnapped and 64 have been threatened in the past six months.

Intimidation and threats also are on the rise against journalists in Argentina, Guatemala, Honduras, Venezuela and Haiti, the association said.

The association is expected to wrap up its meeting Monday with a list of recommendations.