Ray Van Eng (06/24/97)                                

On June 17, a Chilean judge has decided to put a lid on the reporting of the nation's largest drug arrest case, the "El Cabro Carrera" incident which has also lead to alleged political corruption charges.

The Chilean press was in a state of shock as Chile has been one of the most democratic countries in South America and press suppression orders are virtually unheard of. Even President Eduardo Frei was against the court injunction.

Again, the press relied on the Internet to spread information about the story.

La Tercera, the nation's news agency put out a special edition of the paper containing details of the drug case and broadcast the content on the Internet from a web server in the United States so as to bypass the imposed news black-out. In just a few days, the site has received some 10,000 hits a day.