ORTEGA SIGNS MEASURE ABOLISHING CENSORSHIP, INDEFINITE MEDIA CLOSURE

President Daniel Ortega signed a law Saturday that abolishes both prior censorship and the indefinite closures of newspapers and radio stations.

The new code does not authorize private television stations, which had been sought by oppositon groups, but "guarantees equal access to social and political groups" to government-run television.The law was passed Friday by the National Assembly.

Ortega signed it before before leaving on a two-week tour of 11 Western European nations to seek aid for his cash-strapped Sandinista government.

Ortega claimed the new law is one of the most progressive in Latin America because it does not provide for fines or permanent shutdowns of news outlets. But it does provide for temporary suspensions.

The president also said journalists work in greater security in Nicaragua than in other Central American nations, and he mentioned El Salvador, where he said they face "systematic terrorism."

"In other countries in the region, journalists, union leaders and opposition politicians are assassinated," he told reporters after signing the law.

Major provisions of the new law include:

-Penalties for disseminating information deemed contrary to the interests of the state, for "alterating" government news releases, communiques and other statements, and for the "transmission, diffusion, publication or projection of injurious, defamatory or false information."

-The Interior Ministry can order closures of up to four days and can order offending broadcasters or publishers to issue retractions, clarifications or corrections. Broadcasters and publishers will have the right to a hearing before sanctions are applied.

-No prior censorship.

Under the previous law, the government could require the news media to submit copies of articles to the censor before publication or broadcast. And the Interior Ministry could order the inderfinite suspension of news media without a hearing.

The main opposition newspaper La Prensa and the radion station of the Nicaraguan Roman Catholic church were freequently shut down, sometimes for months at a time, and could only reopen with government approval.

Ortega agreed at a meeting in February of the presidents of five Central American countries to reform Nicaragua's press laws and also the election code that will govern the general elections next February.