(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Thursday 11 May 2000, a publication assessment commission, under the Secretary of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, ordered the recall of the magazine “3 puntos”, stipulating that the magazine could be distributed only after being placed in a wrapper that covered the front page. The Commission for the Assessment of […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Thursday 11 May 2000, a publication assessment commission, under the Secretary of Culture of the City of Buenos Aires, ordered the recall of the magazine “3 puntos”, stipulating that the magazine could be distributed only after being placed in a wrapper that covered the front page.
The Commission for the Assessment of Performances, Publications and Graphic Expression (Comision Calificadora de Espectáculos, Publicaciones y Expresiones Gráficas) – currently staffed by just two people – believed that a series of artistic works in the interior pages depicting sexual scenes converted this edition of the magazine into a “limited exhibition” publication. The images were part of works from well-known artists whose works have already appeared in other publications. Nevertheless, with this rating, the commission put a magazine that is well-known for its extensive investigation of and reflection on the current social and political situation in the same category as pornographic magazines. The publication’s cover merely showed the future chief and vice-chief of the municipal government after they had won the elections.
Jorge Halperín, director of “3 puntos”, immediately communicated his concern to the officer of the Secretary of Culture and to the chief of the municipal government of Buenos Aires. Within a few hours they succeeded in getting the commission to make a new rating, this time categorising the publication under “exhibition without objections”.
PERIODISTAS approved “the swiftness of the intervention by the authorities”, but expressed its concern “over these kinds of measures which attempt to curtail the right of press freedom, and citizens’ right to free access to information”.
