Argentina

(Periodistas/IFEX) – The following is a PERIODISTAS press release: The Cabezas Trial It is probable, but not certain, that the people sentenced in Dolores supervised the crime. Ostensibly, however, they did not lead the responsible parties, and the legal findings never gave irrefutable reasons for the motivations behind or the factual circumstances surrounding the shocking […]

(RSF/IFEX) – The following is a 4 February 2000 RSF press release: Paris, 4 February 2000 Argentina : Cabezas trial Reporters sans frontières welcomes the ruling and announces that it will closely follow the work of the commission investigating the “unclear elements” that were not dealt with in the trial Reporters sans frontières (RSF) welcomes […]

(Periodistas/IFEX) – The ruling party has sent two proposals prepared by PERIODISTAS to the special legislative session of Congress. The proposed projects are intended to increase protections for free expression. If these initiatives are approved, Argentina will be the first Latin American country to decriminalise slander and defamation of public functionaries. If public functionaries feel […]

(IAPA/IFEX) – IAPA considers the guilty verdict against the assassins of Argentine photojournalist Jose Luis Cabezas to be a well-aimed blow to impunity and the enemies of freedom of expression and the press. An Argentine court sentenced the eight accused to life imprisonment for the Cabezas murder. The court’s sentencing also established that the prominent […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – On 27 January 2000, the Argentine radio station Radio Uni reported that a group of reporters from the television news station Cablevision Sur (owned by media corporation El Sol) received death threats after covering and running a story on the burning of garbage in a rock quarry in the west-end of Buenos Aires. […]

The following is a 19 January 2000 news alert from the office of the second vice-president of IAPA’s Press Freedom Committee (PFC), in Argentina: Today, media workers in Santa Cruz, Argentina denounced measures introduced by that province’s Security Ministry that would restrict freedom of expression and the right of journalists to freely disseminate information. The […]

(IFJ/IFEX) – On Wednesday 12 January 2000, the Press Union of the province of Santa Cruz, Argentina, expressed to IFJ’s Human rights section for Latin America of the International Federation of Journalists their condemnation of a series of measures restricting access to information that have been taken by Provincial Security Secretary Nestor Peña. The Argentine […]

The following is a 6 January 2000 news alert from the office of the Second Vice-president of IAPA’s Press Freedom Committee office, Roberto Eduardo Romero, based in Salta, Argentina: SALTA, ARGENTINA, JANUARY 6 2000 Another attack against journalists, this time perpetrated by a police officer in the Argentine province of Santiago del Estero, was reported […]

On Tuesday 4 January 2000, the security minister for Buenos Aires province, Aldo Rico, threatened and insulted a group of news photographers who were covering his visit to the Pinamar region. The official was disturbed by the presence of photographers María Eugenia Cerruti (“Clarín” newspaper), Facundo Pechervsky (“La Nacion” newspaper) and Federico Guastavino (“Noticias” magazine), […]

Argentina seems likely to become the first Latin American country in which journalists cannot be jailed for criticizing public officials. On December 15, an Argentine senate commission is expected to approve a bill decriminalizing libel and defamation. “This will affirm the press freedom that Argentine journalists have been using for the last two decades to […]

(PFC/IFEX) – On Tuesday 14 December 1999, the examination into the assassination of news photographer José Luis Cabezas will begin at 9:30 a.m. (local time). Three judges from the Dolores Court of Appeals will begin to hear the testimonies of 600 witnesses, with the intention of reaching a verdict before 25 January 2000, the third […]

The Inter American Press Association expressed its concern over death threats received by an Argentine journalist which, in the organisation’s opinion, amount to a flagrant attempt to silence her. Journalist Viviana Gorbato, the author of a number of books including: “Montoneros, soldados de Menem, soldados de Duhalde”, was recently warned in a telephone call that […]

(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Saturday 13 November 1999, two officers of the Provincial Police of San Luis intimidated radio journalist Mario Otero while he was driving through the capital city. In an uncommon gesture for the security forces, forty-eight hours after the incident, the provincial police chief suspended the two officers involved and opened an internal […]

(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Wednesday 17 November 1999, the technical manager of Club Atlético River Plate’s soccer team, Ramon Díaz, filed a suit against journalist Adrián Paenza, who announced publicly that the technical manager has asked for money from certain players in exchange for allowing them to play on the team. The journalist made his statements […]

(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Wednesday 10 November 1999, Florencio Minatta, the judge in charge of Preliminary Court Number II in Trelew, Argentina, ordered the preventive detention of six people charged with the assassination of journalist and editor Ricardo Gangeme. According to the reasoning behind the Judge’s sentencing, the most valid hypothesis is that the journalist was […]

(Periodistas/IFEX) – On Monday 15 November 1999, a preliminary hearing was held in the Dolores Appeals Court, in connection with the oral and public examination of the assassination of news photographer José Luis Cabezas. The parties involved in the case had an opportunity to request that last minute expert opinions, testimonies and evidence that they […]