(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 15 June 2001 IAPA press release: IAPA concerned by government’s continuous campaign of harassment against Argentine newspaper Miami (15 June 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reiterated its concern over the latest seizure order faced by a newspaper in the province of Santiago del Estero, in Argentina’s […]
(IAPA/IFEX) – The following is a 15 June 2001 IAPA press release:
IAPA concerned by government’s continuous campaign of harassment against Argentine newspaper
Miami (15 June 2001) – The Inter American Press Association (IAPA) reiterated its concern over the latest seizure order faced by a newspaper in the province of Santiago del Estero, in Argentina’s interior. According to the IAPA, this act “is part of a harassment campaign and political persecution by the government” aimed at weakening the journalistic profession in the province.
The newspaper El Liberal is facing a new seizure order, following a 6 June decision by the Santiago del Estero First Instance Criminal Court, in northwestern Argentina. The court’s decision came in response to complaints put forth by members of the Women’s Branch of the Justicialista Party (Peronist). This is the third seizure order the morning newspaper is facing, amounting to a total of 600,000 pesos (approximately US$600,000) as a result of eleven legal actions filed against it.
IAPA President Danilo Arbilla stated that “we are surprised that Santiago del Estero and national public institutions have still not taken any action on this matter. It is clear that this a campaign by the provincial government, which is using a justice system that is not independent to silence a press outlet in reprisal for its critical reporting on the public administration and political activities.”
The IAPA has been paying special attention to this case since July 2000, when El Liberal published reports critical of the Women’s Branch, using information obtained from the newspaper La Voz del Interior published in Cordoba, a province neighbouring Santiago del Estero. Since that time, political factions linked to Governor Carlos Juárez have targeted La Voz del Interior’s journalists and affected the newspaper’s distribution. At the same time, El Liberal has been discriminated against in the granting of governmental advertising and a number of its journalists have been attacked. Furthermore, the newspaper began to face legal actions, preventive seizures and the threat that the 4,000 members of the Women’s Branch, led by the governor-wife and vice-governor, Mercedes Aragonés de Juárez, would launch criminal actions against it.
Arbilla noted that “this latest act reaffirms the concerns we expressed after our mission to Santiago del Estero at the end of 2000, when we suggested that what had began as a series of attacks against the newspaper El Liberal had turned into a serious case of harassment by those who govern the province. This has continued and seriously puts the newspaper’s existence in jeopardy.”
The president of IAPA’s Committee on Freedom of the Press and Information, Rafael Molina, said that the IAPA would not cease monitoring this matter, informing international organisations which defend human rights and freedom of expression, and insisting that Argentine judicial authorities and the national government intervene so that an end can be put “to this comical situation affecting freedom of the press and expression, the public’s right to information and democracy.”
