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	Lugo's Paternity Scandal Stirs Debate about the Private Life of Public Figures in Paraguay Knight Center for Journalism in the Americas May 1, 2009 http://knightcenter.utexas.edu/blog/?q=en/node/3811 Claims that President Fernando Lugo fathered children while he was a bishop in the Catholic Church have sparked a debate about the freedom of expression and issues of privacy in Paraguayan society, BBC Mundo reports. According to the newspaper Ultima Hora, the media and the government have differed over the boundaries of press freedom and privacy. For columnist Estela Ruiz, "this issue brings into doubt (Lugo's) political ethics and the promises of ethical steps in the public sphere by the administration." According to Ruiz, the president "should take responsibility, not avoid the issues, and speak with courage and openness of his mistakes like a public servant." For journalists who cover the president, the situation has generated conflict. Susana Oviedo, also of Ultima Hora, notes that journalists are not obliged to cover the same angles. Her conclusion: "A journalist has autonomy and his own criteria to formulate questions that best result in obtaining information that he considers relevant to the people, and no authorities or colleagues can interfere with this."
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