(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 23 November 1998, Periodistas reported on the following, a bomb threat and military spying on Argentine journalists: 22 November: A bomb threat was called into the daily “Clarín”. The call stating that a bomb had been placed in “Clarín”‘s building caused a commotion and Tacuarí street near Constitucion had to remain evacuated […]
(Periodistas/IFEX) – On 23 November 1998, Periodistas reported on the
following, a bomb threat and military spying on Argentine journalists:
22 November: A bomb threat was called into the daily “Clarín”. The call
stating that a bomb had been placed in “Clarín”‘s building caused a
commotion and Tacuarí street near Constitucion had to remain evacuated for
over three hours. At around 5:30 p.m. (local time,) a man called the
switchboard and asked to speak “to someone in authority at the paper to
report an important piece of news.” The call was transferred to the news
desk. The man then said, “Do you remember AMIA [referring to the 1994 bomb
attack on the headquarters of the Argentine-Israeli Mutual Association]?
Well, there’s a remote-controlled bomb at the paper. I hope you find it.”
The building was immediately evacuated and the police, notified. A short
while later, the commissioner and deputy commissioner for the area arrived,
along with the bomb squad and the Federal Police fire brigade. After a
three-hour search of the building, the journalists were able to return to
work. The delay complicated the preparation of the Monday 23 November
edition. Editor and Periodistas founding member Roberto Guareschi said the
threat was “a terrorist act worth one peso, the cost of making a call from
a pay phone.”
23 November: The daily “Página/12” obtained information proving that, on at
least two occasions, Air Force Intelligence spied on Argentine citizens
including ten journalists from the dailies “Clarín”, “La Nacion”,
“Cronista” and “Página/12”. The spying was ordered by Department III,
Central Office II (Intelligence) of the Air Force. The National Defence law
expressly prohibits internal intelligence activities. One of the
substantiating documents obtained by “Página/12” is a 9 March 1997 report
on how two intelligence agents followed members of the women’s group
Movimiento de Mujeres en Lucha. The other document is access to information
request (Orden de Pedido de Informacion, OPI) number 057/97 on the
following ten print journalists: Rolando Barbano, Alcadio Oña, Roberto
Solans, Carlos Rodríguez, José E. Toyah, Hernán Firpo, Adrián Ventura,
Alfredo Vega (whose name is crossed out,) Sergio Moreno and Dolores
Oliveira. The reasons given in the document are that the journalists “wrote
articles… in which they criticized airport security and/or the
forthcoming privatization.” This refers to a September 1997 Austral
airlines crash in Uruguay which killed everyone on board; the accident
prompted strong criticism of airport security at a time when the
privatization of airport terminals was the object of serious legal disputes
which went all the way to the Supreme Court.
