(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – The first hearing in the criminal libel and “insult” suit against members of the “Foro de Entidades Intermedias”, an association of civil society groups, was held on 15 December 2003. The legal action was initiated by Néstor Ick, a powerful businessman from Santiago del Estero province, in northern Argentina. Ick owns Santiago del […]
(PERIODISTAS/IFEX) – The first hearing in the criminal libel and “insult” suit against members of the “Foro de Entidades Intermedias”, an association of civil society groups, was held on 15 December 2003. The legal action was initiated by Néstor Ick, a powerful businessman from Santiago del Estero province, in northern Argentina. Ick owns Santiago del Estero’s Canal 7 television station, the province’s main bank and companies that have million-dollar contracts with the local government.
In 2002, Ick launched a complaint against the individuals responsible for publishing in a newspaper, in March of that year, a letter questioning his business dealings, his relationship with politicians and the effects this relationship was having on Santiago de Estero’s population, which is one of the poorest in the country.
Established in 2001, the “Foro de Entidades Intermedias” association publicly criticises the province’s political and economic elite, headed by Carlos Juárez, the province’s main political figure and five-times governor, and his wife, Marina Mercedes Aragonés, who is the current governor.
Four representatives of the local Press Society (Círculo de la Prensa), Eduardo Enrique Peláez, Héctor Hugo Ávila, Ángel Enrique Sayago and Julio Carreras, are among the defendants. They have received legal assistance from PERIODISTAS and the Argentine Federation of Press Workers (Federación Argentina de Trabajadores de Prensa, FATPREN).
One of the phrases in the letter to which Ick took exception stated, “Evidently business that is conducted with the complicity of those in power is profitable, since any possibility that the public might become aware of the truth causes deep fear in those who know perfectly well that they are acting against the law.” The letter went on to say, “people are tired of working to make a single individual rich (. . .) Those who want to control everything in the province should remember that slavery was justly abolished by a constituent assembly.”
The hearing took place three weeks after PERIODISTAS sent a delegation to the province. In a report entitled, “Santiago del Estero: Free expression does not exist”, the organisation voiced “its support for the mobilisation of the various sectors in Santiago del Estero”. PERIODISTAS also recommended “that civil society institutions and the national government closely follow the situation in the province, in a systematic and continuous manner, in order to prevent grave consequences for those who refuse to submit and stay silent.”
